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Letters  from  the  East.     12mof  original  cloth.     New  York,  1869. 


ft 


A       STR  E  ET       IN    .    CA  I  RO   _ 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  EAST. 


BY 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 


NEW  YORK: 

G.    P.    PUTNAM    &    SON. 
1869. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869, 
BY  WM.  CULLEN  BRYANT, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


Stereotyped  by  LITTLE,  RENNIE  <fe  CO., 
645  &  647  Broadway,  New  York. 


TO   THE   EEADEE. 


THE  Letters  which  form  the  contents  of  this 
volume  were  written  in  the  course  of  a  visit 
made  to  the  Old  World  in  the  closing  months 
of  the  year  1852,  and  the  first  six  months  of 
the  year  following.  The  author  has  been  in 
duced  to  collect  and  present  them  in  this  form 
by  the  encouragement  of  the  Publisher,  who 
thought  that  the  volume  might  be  fortunate 
enough  to  find  readers. 

YORK,  September  1,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  I. 

Contraband  books.— Strictness  of  the  Custom-house  Officers.— Captain 
Lynch  and  his  book.— Poetry  in  the  Custom-house.—  England  del 
uged  with  rain.— Prosperity  of  England  in  1852.— Emigration  to 
Australia 9 

LETTER   II. 

Return  of  gayety  and  commercial  activity  in  Paris.— The  Credit  Mobilier.— 
The  Empire  succeeding  a  Republic  which  has  lost  its  liberties.  The 
new  Emperor  conducted  to  the  Tuileries. — Absence  of  enthusiasm  in 
the  people. — Motives  of  those  who  voted  for  the  Empire. — Acqui 
escence  of  all  parties  in  the  Empire. — Huntington  the  artist 16 

LETTER  III. 

Nismes,  its  Roman  remains.  Amphitheatre,  Maison  Carree  and  Pont  du 
Gard.— Amphitheatre  at  Aries.— The  Boulevards.— Roman  baths.— 
Public  garden. — Dryness  of  the  climate. — The  fountain  of  the  Espla 
nade.—  Delaroche's  picture  of  Cromwell  contemplating  Charles  I.  in 
his  coffin 24 

LETTER  IV. 

Security  from  accident  on  board  the  Mediterranean  steamers.— Discom 
forts  of  a  small  steamer.— Fiue  view  of  the  Maritime  Alps  from  the 
water.— A  day  in  Genoa.— Vexations  of  the  passport  system.— Pses- 
tnm  Amalfl.— Neapolitan  boatmen.— Beauty  of  the  coast.— Songs  of 
the  boatmen.— Peculiarities  of  Neapolitan  pronunciation.— Excur 
sion  to  Prestum.— Sickly  inhabitants.— Messina.— Malta.— La  Val 
letta. — The  Catholic  church  in  Malta 34 

LETTER  V. 

Voyage  from  Malta  to  Cairo.— A  steamer  crowded  with  passengers  from 
England  to  India.— Ill-bred  people.— Fortune,  the  botanist.— The 
tea-plant  in  America  and  India. — The  grape  in  China  and  Japan. — 
A  Chinese  fruit  for  America.— A  hardy  palm.— Arrival  at  Alexan 
dria.— Confusion  of  the  landing.— Passage  to  Cairo.— The  canal.— 
the  Nile.— Arab  devotions.— Youth  drowned  in  the  Nile 55 


O  CONTEXTS. 

LETTER  VI. 

Sights  and  sounds  of  Cairo.— Aspect  of  the  crowd  in  the  streets.— 
Women.— The  bazars.— The  barbers.— Mosques.— Noisy  habit:?  of  the 
Egyptians. — Mosque  of  Mohammed  AH. — The  pyramids  of  Ghizeh. — 
Arab  boatmen. — Bedouins. — Purpose  of  the  pyramids. — Pyramids  of 
Sakkara.— M.  Mariette  and  his  excavations.— Temple  and  tomb  of 
Apis.— The  site  of  Memphis.— Mounds  of  sun-dried  brick.— Vast 
grove  of  palms.— Saltpetre  manufactured  from  the  bricks 69 

LETTER  VII. 

Passage  in  a  steamer  up  the  Nile  to  Thebes  and  the  lower  cataract  of  the 
Nile.— Arrangements  for  the  voyage.— Beauty  of  the  weather.— Upper- 
Egypt,  its  aspect.— Irrigation.— Villages.— Scarcity  of  fruit-trees.— 
Rocky  hills  overlooking  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Nile.— The  Tem 
ples  of  Thebes  and  Karnac.— A  French  excavator,  M.  Mounier.— 
Uncovering  of  old  temples.— Tyranny  of  the  Egyptian  authorities.— 
A  Latin  convent.— Copts.— Their  church 89 

LETTER  VIII. 

Journey  from  Cairo  to  Jerusalem  across  the  Little  Desert.— Gardens  en 
closed  by  the  prickly  pear.— Olive-trees.— Sycamore  of  the  Virgin.— 
The  Obelisk  of  Heliopolis.— Village  of  Khankia.— Lake  of  the  Pil 
grims. — Brief  twilight. — Journey  on  camels. — Hoopoes. — Entrance 
on  the  Desert, — Our  dragoman. — The  father  of  couriers. — Furniture 
of  our  caravan.— Ground  strewn  with  fragments  of  pottery.— An  Arab 
burial-ground.— Village  of  Belbays  102 

LETTER  IX. 

Second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  days  of  our  journey. — A  visit  from 
two  Arab  women. — Coquetry  of  the  younger. — Horsemanship  of  the 
Arabs.— A  belt  of  cultivation  in  the  Desert.— Rassel  Wady.— Flocks 
of  birds.— Irrigation.— Arabs  singing.— A  dragoman  flogs  an  Arab.— 
A  camel  runs  away.— A  mirage.— Barook.— Pilgrims  from  Mecca.— 
A  sirocco. — Dead  camels. — A  monkey  digging  sorrel. — Violence  of 
the  wind. — Our  tents  overturned  at  night. — Gatieh. — Personal  ap 
pearance  of  the  Arabs.— Vermin 113 

LETTER  X. 

Seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  days  of  our  journey. — Bedouin  huts. — Women 
at  the  hand-mills.— A  salt-plain.— Ruins  of  a  tower.— A  well  in  the 
Desert.— Brackish  water.— Arabs  amusing  themselves  with  our  mon 
key.— Flocks  of  goats  and  sheep.— Importunity  of  the  flies.— We 
meet  a  merchants'  caravan. — Mosquitoes. — Animal  life  in  the 


CONTENTS.  7 

Desert. — Tracks  of  jackals  and  gazelles. — Sight  of  the  Mediterra 
nean. — Shrubs  of  the  Desert. — Minute  flowers. — Herd  of  camels  feed 
ing.— Pools  of  water  in  the  salt-plains.— Springs  of  mineral  oil.— Cry 
of  the  jackal.— Town  of  El  Areesh.— Plantations  of  young  palms.— 
Sand-hills  and  drifts.— Fruit-trees 127 

LETTER  XI. 

Tenth  day  of  the  journey.— Picturesque  costumes.— Spirited  horses  and 
horsemanship.— Trouble  with  passports.— Barley-fields.— Women 
cutting  up  juniper. — Tributes  to  the  Arabs. — An  Arab  exquisite. — 
A  pastoral  region. — Another  tribute. — A  salt  lake. — Safayda. — Tomb  of 
a  Santon.— Flocks  of  birds.— Frightful  scream  of  a  jackal.— Reading 
the  Scriptures.— A  troop  of  dervishes.— An  Arab  cemetery 143 

LETTER  XII. 

Cultivated  fields  between  bare  sand-hills.— Euins  of  Rhaphia.— The  vir 
gin's  fountain. — Khan  Yoonas. — Fruit-trees  in  bloom. — Our  party  in 
quarantine. — We  pass  the  night  in  a  cemetery. — A  crowd  of  women  in 
white,  among  the  graves.— Oranges.— Distinguished-looking  visit 
ors.— Departure  from  Khan  Yoonas.— Pilgrims.— The  scarlet  anem 
one. — Old  sycamores. — Men  ploughing  with  camels. — We  enter  the 
lazaretto  at  Gaza. — View  of  the  country  from  our  windows. — Fool 
ish  look  of  the  dervishes. — Our  monkey  attacks  one  of  the  holy 
men.— An  Arab  virago.— Show  of  tongues.— Release  from  the  laza 
retto  157 

LETTER  XIII. 

Continuation  of  the  journey  to  Jerusalem.— The  Gate  of  Gaza.— A  vast 
olive-grove.— Curious  travelling  cradle.— Remains  of  a  Christian 
church. — Askelon. — Ancient  walls. — Sand  drifting  over  the  fields. — 
El  Medjal.— Little  oxen.— Rude  ploughs.— Ashdod.— Ruins  of  a  large 
Khan.— A  chorus  of  frogs.— Gazelles  feeding.— Village  of  Zebua.— 
Saracenic  bridges. — Women  carrying  burdens. — Town  of  Ramleh. — 
An  abandoned  tower. — Plain  of  Sharon. — A  convent,  where  we  pass 
the  night. — The  mosquitoes  from  the  cisterns 168 

LETTER  XIV. 

Journey  to  Jerusalem  continued.— We  take  our  leave  of  the  Arabs  and 
their  camels.— Journey  on  horseback.— Queer  bridles  and  saddles.— 
A  janizary  of  the  American  Vice-Consul  at  Jerusalem. — His  long 
staff. — Entrance  upon  the  hill-country. — A  lunch  under  evergreen 
oaks.— Steep  ascent  by  a  bridle-path.— Sure-footed  horses.— Soil  full 
of  loose  stones.— Its  fertility.— First  sight  of  the  Holy  City.— The 


8  CONTENTS. 

Jaffa  gate  of  the  city.— People  promenading  in  the  country.— Bearded 
priests.— Hotel  kept  by  a  Maltese.— Visit  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre 179 

LETTER  XV. 

The  Lazaretto  at  Smyrna.— Beautiful  harbor.— Fleet  of  American  ships 
of  war  in  the  Levant.— Behavior  of  the  Arabs  to  the  Frank.— Relaxa- 
tion  of  bigotry.— Mohammedan  prejudices.— No  Christian  converts 
from  Moslems.— Power  of  the  foreign  consuls.— Extravagant  preroga 
tives  of  the  American  consuls.—  Hasty  appointments  to  consulships.— 
American  missionaries  at  Beyroot. — Dr.  Eli  Smith. — Mr.  Calhoun. — 
A  Druse  Emir.— Dr.  De  Forrest.— A  girls'  schqol.— Demand  for  edu 
cated  wives 186 

LETTER  XVI. 

Constantinople. — Foreign  relations  of  Turkey. — Arrival  of  Lord  Strat 
ford. — Feebleness  of  the  Turkish  government. — Corruption  and  public 
plunder.— Banditti  at  Smyrna. —Their  robberies.— Their  cruelties.— 
The  Chiefs  of  the  Banditti.— A  Druse  robber  caught  and  caged.— The 
Druse  population.— The  Sultan.— His  palace.— His  Pashas.— Turkey 
held  together  by  pressure  without 202 

LETTER  XVII. 

Beautiful  view  from  the  hill  of  Bulgonlu,  near  Constantinople.— 
Athens.— Corfu.— Glorious  view  from  the  Goruno.— Noble  remains 
of  ancient  architecture  at  Athens.— Modern  Greeks.— Their  schools.— 
Their  readiness  to  learn.— Syra.— The  American  consul.— Evange- 
lides.— Dr.  Hill's  school. — Youug  ladies  reading  Homer  in  the  origi 
nal. — Dr.  Jonas  King,  the  orientalist. — His  controversy. — His  cour 
age. — Anecdote  of  the  American  flag. — General  dissatisfaction  with 
the  Greek  government.— Corruption  of  public  men 215 

LETTER  XVIII. 

May  at  Rome. — Abundance  of  flowers. — Severity  of  the  Roman  govern 
ment. — The  people  kept  quiet  by  the  military. — Improved  appearance 
of  Rome. — The  city  beautified. — Copies  of  old  pictures. — American 
artists  at  Rome.— Sculptors.— Painters.— Gibson's  Venus.— Colored 
statues.— Powers  at  Florence.— The  monument  of  Titian  at 
Venice 231 

LETTER  XIX. 

Fresnel  lights.— Their  strength  and  brilliancy. — Improvement  in  their 
construction. — Tomb  of  Napoleon. — Its  magnificence. — Imperfect 
civilization  of  mankind.— Exhibition  of  the  works  of  living  artists.— 
Naked  Venuses.— Ugly  head  of  Louis  Napoleon.— Duveau.— Death  of 
Agrippina 243 


LETTEK  I. 

Contraband  books. — Strictness  of  the  Custom-house  Officers. — Captain 
Lynch  and  his  book. — Poetry  in  the  Custom-house. — England  del 
uged  with  rain.— Prosperity  of  England  in  1852.— Emigration  to 
Australia. 

LONDON,  November  29th,  1852. 

I  DID  not  think  of  writing  to  you  from  Eng 
land,  but  there  are  one  or  two  things  which  occur 
to  me  as  worthy  of  mention. 

One  of  the  vexations  which  a  traveller  meets 
on  his  arrival  in  this  country  is  the  search  for 
contraband  books.  The  booksellers  in  England 
have  furnished  the  Custom-houses  with  a  list  of 
American  works  of  which  they  claim  the  copy 
right.  When  a  book  is  found  among  the  bag 
gage  of  the  traveller,  which  is  carefully  over 
hauled  for  the  purpose,  the  examining  officer 
looks  to  see  if  it  is  printed  in  America  ;  and  if  it 
be,  he  consults  his  manuscript  list,  to  see  whether 
it  be  also  published  in  England  by  a  person 
claiming  the  copyright.  If  its  title  appears  on 
the  list,  the  book  is  seized.  Considerable  delay 


10  CAPTAIN  LYNCH  S   BOOK. 

is  occasioned  by  the  strictness  with  which  the 
examination  is  made. 

Among  my  fellow-passengers  who  left  New 
York  in  the  steamer  Arctic,  was  Captain  Lynch, 
the  enterprising  and  successful  explorer  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  He  made,  as  you  know,  an  official 
report  of  his  expedition  to  the  government, 
which  has  been  printed  by  order  of  Congress. 
Besides  this,  he  prepared  a  personal  narrative  of 
his  expedition,  a  very  interesting  work,  which 
was  published  at  Philadelphia  by  Lea  &  Blan- 
chard.  Bentley,  the  London  publisher,  imported 
into  England  a  number  of  copies  of  the  work 
in  sheets,  procuring  them  to  be  bound ;  and  to 
secure  himself  from  competition,  took  out  a 
copyright  for  the  work,  and  sent  the  title  to  the 
Liverpool  Custom-house,  that  any  other  copies 
introduced  from  America  might  be  seized  and 
stopped. 

When  Captain  Lynch's  baggage  was  under 
going  examination,  he  asked  the  officer  what  dis 
position  would  be  made  of  a  copy  of  his  narra 
tive  printed  in  America,  if  it  was  found  among 
its  effects.  "Most  certainly,"  answered  the  offi 
cer,  "  it  would  be  my  duty  to  retain  it.  Not  a 


CONTRABAND  BOOKS.  11 

single  work  patented  in  this  country  can  be  intro 
duced  from  abroad,  and  I  should  be  obliged  to 
seize  it,  even  in  the  hands  of  its  author." 

One  of  our  passengers  had,  in  his  portmanteau, 
three  works  published  in  the  United  States,  of  two 
of  which  he  was  the  author,  and  to  the  third 
of  which  he  was  a  contributor.  One  of  them,  a, 
volume  of  poetry,  required  no  long  examination ; 
poetry  is  a  drug  in  both  countries,  and  the  pub 
lishers  do  not  find  it  worth  their  while  to  mantain 
a  very  fierce  rivalry  for  so  unsalable  a  com 
modity.  The  volume  which  next  engaged  the 
officer's  attention  was  a  prose  work,  and  this  led 
to  a  long  and  close  examination.  The  officer 
went  over  the  list,  apparently  more  than  once, 
looking  at  the  title  of  the  book  again  and 
again,  and  once  or  twice  appeared  to  hesi 
tate,  while  the  assistant  inspectors  stood  unem 
ployed,  waiting  his  decision.  At  length  he  hand 
ed  back  the  book.  The  third  volume,  a  recent 
publication  of  Putnam's,  was  also  subjected  to  a 
close  scrutiny,  which  was,  however,  soon  brought 
to  a  close. 

On  my  way  to  this  city,  it  seemed  to  me  that 
I  had  never  seen  a  country  drenched  like  Eng- 


12  A  NOVEMBER  FLOOD. 

land.  Seven  weeks  of  almost  constant  rain  have 
saturated  the  ground  with  water,  swollen  the 
springs,  turned  the  ditches  into  .  streams,  and 
raised  the  rivers  till  they  have  in  many  places 
swept  away  their  bridges,  and  everywhere 
drowned  the  low  grounds.  Such  numbers  of  wet 
women  and  children  I  never  saw  before ;  wet 
wagoners  walking  by  the  side  of  their  drip 
ping  teams;  wet  laborers,  male  and  female, 
digging  turnips  in  the  muddy  fields ;  wet  beggars 
in  the  towns,  their  rags  streaming  with  water ; 
wet  sheep  staggering  under  their  drenched 
fleeces,  nibbling  the  grass  in  the  yellowish-green 
fields — for  the  pastures  wear,  at  this  season,  a 
sallow  verdure — or  biting  the  turnips  scattered 
for  them  by  the  farmers  in  long  rows.  I  saw, 
frequently,  mills  standing,  with  their  motionless 
wheels  deep  in  turbid  currents  of  water ;  fields 
prepared  for  grain,  which  cannot  be  sown,  and 
others  ready  for  the  plough  which  cannot  be 
ploughed.  In  some  places,  houses  and  even  ham 
lets  have  been  carried  away  and  the  inhabitants 
drowned ;  and  drowned  cattle,  I  am  told,  are  seen 
floating  in  the  currents.  It  is  said  that  the  coun 
try  has  not  seen  such  floods  since  the  year  1795. 


EMIGRATION   TO    AUSTRALIA.  13 

Almost  everybody  in  England  speaks  of  the 
present  condition  of  the  country  as  extremely 
prosperous.  The  partisans  of  free  trade  insist 
that  there  has  been  a  gradual  diminution  of  pau 
perism,  and  an  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
the  working-classes  ever  since  the  repeal  of  the 
corn-laws.  At  present  it  is  admitted  that  this 
effect  has  been  greatly  heightened  by  the  emi 
gration  to  Australia  and  the  United  States. 
"  We  have  sent  out,"  said  an  intelligent  gentle 
man  to  me,  "great  numbers  of  laborers  to  Aus 
tralia,  the  very  men  by  whom  our  soil  was  tilled 
last  year ;  the  paupers,  having  succeeded  to  those 
places,  receive  the  same  and  even  better  wages, 
and  are  paupers  no  longer.  Besides  these,  we 
have  sent  out  from  other  classes,  particularly 
from  the  class  of  merchants,  numbers  of  intelli 
gent,  enterprising  men,  some  of  the  best  men  of 
England ;  and  next  year  we  shall  give  Australia 
a  still  larger  host  of  colonists.  They  have  gone 
out  for  a  purpose  of  which  they  themselves  are 
scarcely  aware ;  they  have  gone  out  to  found  the 
structure  of  that  new  community  on  solid  and 
liberal  foundations.  "Within  thirty  years  you  will 
see  a  populous,  prosperous,  powerful,  and  enlight- 
2 


14  PAUPERS  RELIEVED. 

ened  community  in  Australia ;  and  long  before 
that  time  it  will  be  independent  of  the  mother 
country,  for  the  men  who  have  migrated  to  that 
country  will  not  endure  that  it  should  remain  in 
a  state  of  dependence  on  a  distant  government 
a  moment  beyond  the  time  when  dependence  is  a 
necessity,  or  at  least  a  convenience." 

In  the  mean  time  I  hear  a  good  deal  said  of  the 
difficulty  of  procuring  workmen  for  the  ordinary 
tasks  of  agriculture.  During  the  season  which 
has  just  closed,  the  ordinary  dependence  upon 
laborers  from  Ireland  failed ;  and  when  the  grain 
was  to  be  cut,  the  soldiery,  in  order  to  save  the 
crops  from  destruction,  were  sent  into  the  fields 
with  sickles  in  their  hands,  instead  of  muskets 
and  swords.  Many  kinds  of  work,  which  were 
formerly  cheaply  executed,  are  now  neglected; 
the  more  necessary  employments  are  filled,  and 
the  others  are  postponed.  I  hear  a  great  deal 
said  of  the  depopulation  of  Ireland.  "Ireland," 
said  a  gentleman  to  me,  "  is  already  half  Prot 
estant;"  but  this  is,  doubtless,  an  exaggera 
tion.  It  is  true,  however,  I  believe,  that  English 
proprietors  and  farmers  are  going  over  in  some 
numbers,  and  I  heard  of  one  case  of  an  emigrant 


CHEAP  LAND  IN  IBELAND.  15 

to  America,  who  returned  because  lie  could  buy 
land  in  Ireland  of  the  same  quality  and  nearness 
to  the  market,  cheaper  than  in  the  United 
States. 


16  KEVIVED  BUSTLE  OF  PARIS. 


LETTER  II. 

Return  of  gayety  and  commercial  activity  in  Paris. — The  Credit  Mobilier. — 
The  Empire  succeeding  a  Eepublic  which  has  lost  its  liberties.  The 
new  Emperor  conducted  to  the  Tuileries. — Absence  of  enthusiasm  in 
the  people. — Motives  of  those  who  voted  for  the  Empire. — Acqui 
escence  of  all  parties  in  the  Empire.— Huntington  the  artist. 

PABIS,  December  7th,  1852. 

THREE  years  ago,  when  I  was  in  Paris,  the  coun 
try  was  suffering  under  that  breaking  up  of  reg 
ular  employments  which  necessarily  attends  a 
revolution.  Nobody  seemed  sure  that  another 
revolution,  or  at  least  an  attempt  at  a  revolution, 
was  not  close  at  hand  ;  the  greater  part  of  those 
foreigners  who  make  Paris  their  residence  had 
flown  the  place.  I  missed  the  usual  bustle  of 
the  streets,  and  saw  here  and  there  long  rows  of 
shops  untenanted,  with  the  shutters  closed.  At 
present  these  shops  are  again  open,  glittering 
with  showy  wares,  and  thronged  with  customers ; 
the  city  is  full  of  foreigners, — they  count  two 
thousand  Americans,  birds  of  every  feather, — 
and  the  concourse  of  English  visitors  and  resi 
dents  seems  more  numerous  than  ever;  solid 
English  carriages  rumble  along  the  streets,  and 
the  English  signs  over  the  shop-doors  seem  to 


PARIS  EMBELLISHED.  17 

me  nearly  twice  as  frequent  as  I  ever  saw  them 
before.  The  gayeties  of  the  place,  never  ex 
tinct,  are  pursued  with  new  spirit ;  the  theatres, 
the  public  ball-rooms,  and  other  places  of  enter 
tainment,  are  crowded.  A  vehement  desire  of 
magnificence  has  seized  upon  the  government ; 
the  public  buildings  are  beautified  and  enlarged  ; 
workmen  are  busy  in  places,  scraping  from  them 
the  mould  which,  in  this  damp  climate,  darkens 
the  cream-colored  stone  of  which  they  are  built : 
and  all  the  ancient  churches  are  undergoing  ex 
tensive  repairs  and  restorations.  Old  frescoes 
discovered  on  their  walls  under  the  whitewash  of 
centuries,  have  been  cleaned,  retouched,  and 
brightened  ;  and  eminent  artists  have  been  em 
ployed  on  new  designs.  Couture,  for  example, 
who  is  placed  by  his  disciples  at  the  head  of  mod 
ern  French  painters,  is  engaged  on  new  frescoes 
for  the  church  of  St.  Eustache.  The  rue  de  Ei- 
volij  which  faces  the  gardens  of  the  Tuileries,  is 
to  be  extended  so  as  to  traverse  the  entire  city  ; 
a  track  of  ruins  has  been  opened  to  the  west  for 
its  passage,  where  houses  have  been  levelled. 
The  magnificent  parallelogram  of  the  Louvre  is 
to  be  completed,  and  workmen  are  pulling  down 
2* 


18  THE  CREDIT  MOBILIER. 

a  part  of  the  structure  not  consistent  with  the 
grander  plan  now  contemplated.  Everybody  is 
employed,  and  Paris,  and  as  I  am  told,  the  whole 
of  France,  now  presents  an  appearance  of  great 
material  prosperity. 

To  stimulate  the  activity  of  trade  the  Emperor 
has  projected  a  great  financial  scheme,  a  bank 
with  an  enormous  capital,  to  be  enlarged  accord 
ing  to  circumstances  and  the  demands  of  bor 
rowers,  which  is  to  lend  money  on  mortgages  of 
property  in  the  country.  In  this  way,  to  use  an 
expression  which  I  once  heard  from  the  lips  of 
an  eminent  speculator  in  the  United  States,  real 
estate  is  to  be  made  fluid, — a  process  as  much 
for  the  welfare  of  the  body  politic  as  it  would  be 
healthful  for  the  human  body  if  its  solid  parts 
were  converted  into  a  liquid  state.  This  plan, 
which  is  to  be  immediately  carried  into  effect, 
will  stimulate  speculation  to  a  degree  of  which 
France  has  had  no  experience  since  the  time  of 
John  Law  and  the  South  Sea  bubble. 

In  the  midst  of  the  general  activity  and  conse 
quent  contentment  of  the  laboring-classes,  France 
ceases  to  be  a  republic  and  becomes  an  empire. 
"  I  prefer  the  empire,"  said  an  intelligent  lady  to 


PROCLAMATION    OF  THE   EMPIRE.  19 

me  the  day  after  it  was  proclaimed,  "  because  it 
is  just  what  it  pretends  to  be ;  when  liberty  is  at 
end  it  is  time  that  the  forms  of  liberty  should  be 
abandoned."  It  was  the  evening  before  the 
proclamation  of  the  empire  that  I  arrived  in 
Paris.  The  next  morning  the  town  was  waked 
by  the  firing  of  cannon,  and  as  the  day  wore  on, 
the  shops  were  shut,  and  notwithstanding  the 
rain,  for  it  was  one  of  the  gloomiest  and  saddest 
days  of  a  Parisian  winter,  the  population  flocked 
to  the  Boulevards  and  the  broader  streets  where 
detachments  of  the  army  and  of  the  national 
guards  were  marching  to  the  sound  of  music.  I 
was  present  as  the  newly  proclaimed  emperor 
was  conducted  to  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries  by 
a  military  escort.  The  ceremony  was  rather  im 
posing.  A  party  of  cavalry,  in  plumed  and  glit 
tering  casques,  first  dashed  briskly  forward 
through  the  space  opened  for  them  in  the  im 
mense  multitude  which  thronged  the  Champs 
Elysees  and  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries,  like  the 
gust  which  sweeps  the  streets  before  a  tempest. 
Then  came  the  Emperor,  on  horseback,  amidst 
his  generals  and  marshals.  A  few  cries  of  Vive 
VEmpereur  arose,  which  he  answered  by  taking 


20  NAPOLEON   III. 

off  his  hat  and  bowing  to  the  people.  He  ap 
peared  of  shorter  stature  than  most  of  the  offi 
cers  of  his  suite,  but  he  sat  his  horse  well,  a  spir 
ited  creature,  which  pranced  and  curvetted,  and 
seemed  proud  of  bearing  the  sovereign  of  the 
French  Empire.  The  party  entered  the  palace 
gates,  and  not  long  afterward  the  emperor 
showed  himself  at  the  balcony.  The  troops  in 
front  of  the  palace  greeted  his  appearance  with 
acclamations,  but  from  the  crowd  which  stood 
around  me,  not  a  single  cry  was  heard.  They 
were  persons  of  all  conditions  and  ages ;  well- 
dressed  men  and  ladies,  men  in  blouses  and 
women  in  caps,  all  looking  on  in  silence,  as  on  a 
spectacle  in  which  they  had  no  part.  There  was 
an  utter  absence  not  only  of  enthusiasm  but  even 
of  the  least  affectation  of  enthusiasm. 

The  city  was  illuminated  in  the  evening — mea- 
gerly  illuminated,  except  in  a  few  instances.  The 
illumination  was  a  part  of  the  prescribed  ceremo 
nies  of  the  occasion,  and  was  commanded  by  the 
government.  Twice  in  the  course  of  the  day  a 
message  from  the  police  was  brought  to  the 
hotel  where  I  lodge,  intimating  that  it  was 
expected  that  the  house  would  be  illuminated 


OPINIONS  CONCERNING  THE  EMPEROR.  21 

in  the  evening.  The  order  was  obeyed,  of 
course. 

It  is  admitted,  however,  I  believe  on  all  hands, 
that  a  large,  at  least  a  considerable  majority  of 
the  people  of  France  is  in  favor  of  the  present 
order  of  things.  At  the  hotel  where  I  passed 
the  night  in  Boulogne,  I  asked  one  of  the  attend 
ants,  a  man  of  mature  age  and  not  unintelligent, 
what  he  thought  of  the  empire.  "What  the 
people  now  want,"  he  replied,  "  is  the  opportu 
nity  of  earning  their  livelihood  by  their  labor  in 
peace.  That  they  now  have,  and  they  are  not 
ambitious  of  anything  beyond  it.  I  gave  my 
voice  for  Louis  Napoleon  and  his  plans,  because 
I  believe  he  can  and  will  maintain  things  in  their 
present  state."  Another  man,  of  nearly  the  same 
class  in  France,  answered  the  same  question  thus : 
"  As  long  as  Louis  Napoleon  remains  at  peace 
with  other  nations,  we  shall  have  good  times,  and 
the  people  will  be  with  him.  If  he  should  get 
us  into  a  war,  he  will  disappoint  the  people,  and 
we  may  have  another  change  of  government."- 

I  was  in  conversation  the  other  day  with  an 
intelligent  and  reflecting  Frenchman,  no  friend 
of  the  present  order  of  things,  who  said :  "  The 


22  CHARACTER  OF  THE  FRENCH. 

character  of  the  French  race  is  unstable  ;  they 
are  swayed  to  and  fro  by  the  impulse  of  the  day. 
A  little  while  since  they  shouted  Vive  la  Repu- 
blique  ;  now  the  same  voices  raise  the  cry  of  Vive 
T Empereur  ;  what  may  be  the  next  cry  I  cannot 
tell ;  but,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  past,  the  em 
pire  of  Napoleon  the  Third  cannot  last  long.  I 
do  not  see  any  elements  of  duration  in  it  which 
did  not  belong  to  the  government  of  Charles  X. 
or  Louis  Philippe.  Each  of  the  governments 
which  has  risen  and  fallen  since  the  time  of  Louis 
XYI.  has  promised  itself  eternal  duration.  I  am 
waiting  to  see  what  will  come  next." 

I  give  these  conversations  because  they  are 
more  instructive  than  any  speculations  of  mine 
would  be.  On  Sunday  I  attended  worship  in  the 
Oratoire,  a  French  Protestant  church,  where  I 
listened  to  an  exhortation  from  the  preacher  of 
the  day,  M.  Yermeuil,  who  dwelt  on  the  duty  of 
a  quiet  and  peaceable  demeanor,  and  admon 
ished  his  hearers  with  much  earnestness  to  "  pos 
sess  their  souls  in  patience," — evidently,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  alluding  to  the  political  circum 
stances  of  the  time.  Enough  of  French  politics. 

Huntington,  the  artist,  is  here,  settled  for  the 


HtnS'TINGTON'S  GOOD   SAMARITAN.  23 

winter.  He  is  painting  a  picture  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  bringing  to  the  view  the  man  who 
had  fallen  among  thieves.  He  has  made  the 
studies  for  it  with  great  care,  and  it  promises  to 
be  one  of  his  best  and  most  interesting  works. 


24  NISMES. 


LETTER  III. 

Nismes,  its  Roman  remains,  Amphitheatre,  Maison  Carree  and  Pont  du 
Gard.— Amphitheatre  at  Aries.— The  Boulevards.— Roman  baths.^ 
Public  garden.— Dryness  of  the  climate.— The  fountain  of  the  Espla 
nade. — Delaroche's  picture  of  Cromwell  contemplating  Charles  I.  iu 
his  coffin. 

MARSEILLES,  December  14th,  1852. 
To  those  who  find  themselves  in  France  and 
have  not  the  time  to  make  a  journey  to  Rome,  I 
would  recommend  a  visit  to  Nismes.  In  that 
city  and  its  neighborhood  they  will  be  able  to  ob 
tain  almost  as  good  an  idea  of  the  remains  of  an 
cient  Eoinan  architecture  as  they  could  at  Rome 
itself.  The  amphitheatre  would  entirely  repre 
sent  the  Colosseum,  if  we  were  to  suppose  it 
somewhat  more  extensive,  and  somewhat  more 
magnificent  in  its  external  architecture.  The 
Maison  Carree,  or  Square  House,  a  building  of 
the  Corinthian  architecture,  is  one  of  the  finest 
remains  of  antiquity  in  the  world,  and  gives  as 
perfect  an  idea  as  one  can  well  have  of  the  pub 
lic  edifices  of  the  Romans.  Besides  these,  there 
are  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Diana ;  the  Gate 
of  Augustus,  a  sample  of  their  city  gates ;  the 


ANCIENT  KUINS.  25 

Grand  Tower,  a  fragment  of  what  was  probably 
an  immense  mausoleum,  and  the  Pont  du  Gard, 
a  magnificent  portion  of  an  aqueduct  which  once 
conveyed  water  to  the  city.  Not  far  from  Nisrnes 
is  the  city  of  Aries,  where  is  another  amphi 
theatre  and  other  interesting  remains ;  and  at 
nearly  the  same  distance,  in  another  direction,  is 
Orange,  with  its  triumphal  arch  in  almost  as 
good  preservation  as  either  of  the  triumphal 
arches  at  Rome.  The  monuments  of  antiquity 
at  Nismes  have  been  cleared  of  all  encumbering 
rubbish,  and  of  ah1  the  buildings  erected  within 
or  against  them  in  the  course  of  centuries, 
and  are  thus  seen  to  the  very  best  advantage. 

Modern  Nismes  is  a  very  beautiful  city.  By 
the  side  of  its  boulevards,  at  the  foot  of  the  Tem 
ple  of  Diana,  a  vast  spring,  ninety  feet  in  depth, 
pours  forth  a  river  of  transparent  water.  Near 
it  we  find  some  remains  of  Eoman  baths,  and 
these  have  been  restored  according  to  what  was 
supposed  to  be  their  original  plan,  with  recesses 
and  columns,  and  a  broad  stone  floor,  over  which 
the  water  hurries  toward  the  town.  They  are 
overlooked  by  groups  of  statues,  and  protected 
by  a  massive  stone  balustrade.  Bevond  this  the 
3 


MODERN  NISMES. 


water  is  received  into  broad  canals,  bordered  by 
walls  and  parapets  of  hewn  stone,  which  convey 
it  in  different  directions  through  an  extensive 
promenade  planted  with  trees.  At  the  extremity 
of  one  of  these,  it  is  received  into  a  broad  circu 
lar  basin  of  stone,  the  sides  of  which  slope  by  an 
easy  descent,  and  here  the  washerwomen  of 
Nismes  ply  their  vocation,  slapping  and  rubbing 
the  wet  linen,  and  make  the  slow  current  froth  with 
soap.  On  the  rocky  hill  which  rises  above  the 
fountain  a  public  garden  has  been  laid  out.  The 
bare  cliffs,  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
were  covered  with  soil  brought  up  from  the 
plain,  intersected  with  winding  walks  and  plant 
ed  thickly  with  pines  and  cypresses,  among 
which  are  thickets  of  laurels,  myrtle,  the  tree-box, 
the  lauratinus,  with  its  clusters  of  white  flowers, 
now  beginning  to  open,  and  a  variety  of  other 
shrubs  and  trees  which  never  drop  their  leaves 
in  the  season  of  winter.  You  might  walk  here 
in  one  of  the  sunny  winter  days  of  this  soft  cli 
mate  and  fancy  it  to  be  May.  Above  the  garden 
on  its  foundation  of  rock  rises  the  lofty  Roman 
ruin,  the  Grand  Tower. 

Those  parts  of  the  town  which  lie  near  these 


THE  DRY  CLIMATE.  27 

public  grounds  have  an  uncommonly  agreeable 
aspect.  The  streets  are  very  broad  and  the 
houses  are  in  a  pleasing  style  of  architecture,  built 
of  the  cream-colored  stone  of  the  country,  which 
is  easily  wrought,  and  which  in  the  dry  climate 
of  this  place  long  retains  its  original  rich  light 
tint  in  the  open  air.  It  appears  to  me  that  the 
aridity  of  the  climate  has  much  to  do  with  the 
preservation  of  the  ancient  buildings.  At  Lyons 
and  Avignon,  on  the  Ehone,  the  exhalations  from 
the  river  darken  the  churches  and  houses  almost 
to  a  sooty  hue,  and  here  at  Marseilles  on  the 
Mediterranean,  I  perceive  the  same  effect.  The 
frescoes  of  Deveria,  in  the  Cathedral  at  Avignon, 
painted  twelve  years  since,  and  well  worthy  of  a 
longer  date,  are  already  peeling  in  flakes  from 
the  walls  and  the  ceiling,  so  damp  is  the  atmos 
phere  there.  Nismes  is  situated  on  a  plain  ele 
vated  considerably  above  the  meadows  of  the 
Ehone,  and  beyond  the  reach  of  its  mists.  I  was 
told  that  rain  is  sometimes  known  not  to  fall  in 
this  region  for  ten  months  together.  I  inquired 
what,  in  that  case,  became  of  the  crops.  "  They 
are  gathered  early,"  was  the  answer,  "  except  our 
principal  harvests,  grapes  and  olives,  and  these 


28  SCULPTURES  OF  PRADIER. 

are  best  in  a  dry  climate.  We  have  our  last 
showers  in  April,  and  then  we  expect  no  more 
rain  till  October."  In  such  an  atmosphere  moss 
and  mould  are  slow  in  gathering  upon  walls  and 
sculptures  in  the  open  air,  and  the  oldest  remains 
of  these  at  Nismes,  such,  for  example,  as  the  rich 
Corinthian  columns  of  the  Maison  Garree,  only 
acquire  a  warm  brown  tint  after  the  lapse  of  cen 
turies. 

One  of  the  modern  ornaments  of  Nismes  is  the 
Fountain  of  the  Esplanade,  adorning  the  princi 
pal  public  square,  a  work  of  the  French  sculptor 
Pradier,  who  died  about  six  months  since  by  a 
stroke  of  apoplexy.  It  is  a  group  representing 
Nismes  with  a  crown  of  towers  and  palaces,  copied 
from  the  Roman  remains,  and  the  streams  which 
water  the  neighboring  lands  sitting  at  her  feet, 
among  which  is  the  little  river  gushing  from  the 
ground  in  the  public  garden,  a  beautiful  female 
figure  just  emerging  from  girlhood,  her  fair  brows 
shaded  with  a  chaplet  of  the  leaves  of  the  water- 
lily.  It  is  a  work  of  considerable  merit,  but 
there  is  a  finer  one  of  the  same  artist  in  the 
cathedral  at  Avignon,  a  Yirgin  of  great  beauty 
of  form  and  an  ethereal  sweetness  of  expression. 


DELAROCHE'S  CROMWELL.  29 

The  liaison  Carree  is  turned  into  a  Museum, 
that  is  to  say,  into  a  public  gallery  of  pictures. 
It  has  some  fine  portraits  by  Yanloo,  several  good 
cabinet  pictures  of  the  Flemish  school,  and  a  few 
larger  ones  by  French  painters;  but  the  most 
striking  of  them  all,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  was  De- 
laroche's  painting  of  Cromwell  contemplating  the 
dead  body  of  Charles  the  First  in  its  coffin. 
Delaroche  is  among  painters  what  Crabbe  is 
among  poets ;  he  confines  himself  to  rugged,  un- 
idealized  nature.  One  would  hardly  suppose  it 
possible  for  a  French  artist  to  renounce  so  com 
pletely,  not  only  all  that  is  theatrical  in  the 
French  school,  but  all  attempt  at  grace  of  any 
sort,  as  he  has  done  in  this  work.  As  I  looked 
at  the  rough  old  Roundhead  uncovering,  with 
that  sad  expression  which  speaks  so  much  of  the 
feelings  within,  the  lifeless  face  of  his  king,  I 
could  not  help  fancying  myself  with  him  in  the 
chamber  of  death. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  here  in  the  south  of 
France,  to  help  imagining  myself  in  Italy.  The 
mild  climate,  the  vast  tracts  covered  with  olive- 
trees  and  intermingled  vineyards,  the  Italian 
character  of  the  architecture,  the  women  drawing 
3* 


30  SOUTHERN  FRANCE  LIKE  ITALY. 

water  from  the  fountains  in  jars  of  antique  form; 
the  people  showing  in  their  features  and  physi 
ognomy  a  certain  kindred  to  the  Italian  race,  and 
speaking  an  accented  language  bequeathed  to 
them  by  the  troubadours,  almost  as  different 
from  the  language  of  the  northern  provinces  as 
that  of  Spain  or  Portugal,  make  it  hard  for  me  to 
convince  myself  that  I  am  still  within  the  boun 
daries  of  France.  Around  me  are  the  descend 
ants  of  Roman  and  Greek  colonists,  who  have 
founded  prosperous  and  flourishing  communities ; 
of  those  who  came  hither  when  the  family  of 
Constantine  fixed  the  seat  of  the  Roman  empire 
at  Aries,  and  of  those  of  a  later  age,  when  the 
Italian  church  migrated,  for  a  time,  to  Avignon, 
and  made  it  an  Italian  city. 

To  judge  by  appearances,  this  part  of  the  pop 
ulation  of  France,  as  well  as  that  of  the  north,  is  as 
perfectly  satisfied  with  the  present  government  as 
if  they  had  lived  under  an  empire  from  the  days 
of  Constantine.  No  external  indication,  cer 
tainly,  bespeaks  discontent ;  there  is  nothing  of 
gravity  or  of  gloom — no  silence,  sulkiness,  or 
sadness.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  French  race, 
that  it  conforms  itself  easily  to  any  change  of 


PLACABILITY  OF  THE  FRENCH.  31 

circumstances,  provided  you  do  not  interfere  with 
its  amusements.  "  What  a  people !"  said  a  Ger 
man  lady  to  me  at  Paris.  "  Three  or  four  thou 
sand  unoffending  and  unresisting  people — men, 
women,  and  children — were  shot  in  the  streets,  at 
their  doors,  at  their  windows,  or  sitting  in  their 
apartments,  a  year  ago,  when  Louis  Napoleon 
abolished  the  French  constitution.  In  a  few 
weeks  all  recollection  of  the  dreadful  event  seemed 
to  have  passed  away.  What  a  people,  that  such 
things  should  have  been  done,  and  that,  after  a 
few  days,  nothing  should  be  said  of  them  ;  that 
they  should  have  been  forgotten  and  pardoned !" 
Yet  there  are  some  who  speculate  on  political 
events  in  this  country,  and  who  occupy  them 
selves  in  working  out  the  problem  by  what  sort 
of  process  the  present  government  will  by  and 
by  follow  its  predecessors  to  the  place  where  they 
are  all  to  sleep  together.  One  of  them  lately  said 
to  me :  "  The  Emperor  is  surrounded  by  able 
men,  very  able  and  wholly  unprincipled,  whose 
advice  and  assistance  he  has  had  in  the  well- 
managed  intrigue  which  has  made  him  the  abso 
lute  sovereign  of  France.  Hitherto,  while  the 
project  was  yet  unconsummated,  they  all  acted 


32  POLITICAL   SPECULATIONS. 

harmoniously  together,  for  they  had  but  one  ob 
ject.  Now  the  time  has  arrived  for  rewarding 
their  services  with  honors  and  emoluments,  and 
from  this  time  each  will  have  a  particular  aim  of 
his  own  ;  each  will  claim  the  highest  reward  for 
himself.  It  will  be  impossible  for  the  Emperor 
to  satisfy  them.  It  is  not  that  they  will  be  dis 
contented  with  what  they  receive,  but  that  they 
will  be  indignant  to  see  others  placed  over  them. 
Then  will  be  the  time  of  feuds  and  factions, 
which  as  yet  under  the  new  order  of  things  have 
been  unknown ;  then  will  secret  intrigues  be  set 
on  foot  to  excite  discontent  against  the  govern 
ment,  which,  after  being  adroitly  kindled  and  in 
flamed  for  a  few  years,  may  unseat  Louis  Napo 
leon  as  easily  as  it  unseated  Charles  the  Tenth 
or  Louis  Philippe !" 

There  may  be  much  truth  in  this  view,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  greatest  dangers 
which  the  new  Emperor  has  to  dread  will  arise 
from  another  cause.  In  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  has  hitherto  been  placed,  audacity  has 
been  the  highest  policy.  He  is  now  about  to  ap 
ply  the  same  policy  to  measures  of  finance,  in 
which  it  is  madness.  Everything  indicates 'that 


DANGER  FROM  HARD   TIMES.  33 

the  reign  of  speculation  has  begun  in  France, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  new  bank,  established 
to  increase  the  number  of  borrowers  to  an  extent 
hitherto  unknown  in  the  country.  The  unhealthy 
prosperity  of  a  period  of  speculation  will  be  fol 
lowed  most  certainly  by  a  period  of  embarrass 
ment,  bankruptcy,  and  the  want  of  employment 
among  the  working-classes.  Man,  like  all  beasts 
of  prey,  is  fierce  when  famished.  A  hungry 
Frenchman  has  something  in  him  of  the  nature 
of  the  wolves  which  in  a  severe  winter  descend 
from  the  mountains  of  his  own  country  and  at 
tack  the  peasants  at  their  doors.  It  was  the  want 
of  employment,  it  was  idleness  and  famine,  which 
gave  rise  to  the  several  attempts  to  change  the 
government  by  violence  that  so  soon  followed 
the  revolution  of  1848. 


34  SAFETY  OF  FRENCH  STEAMERS. 


LETTEE  IV. 

Security  from  accident  on  board  the  Mediterranean  steamers. — Discom 
forts  of  a  small  steamer. — Fine  view  of  the  Maritime  Alps  from  the 
water.— A  day  in  Genoa.— Vexations  of  the  passport  system.— Paes- 
tum  Amalfi.— Neapolitan  boatmen.— Beauty  of  the  coast.— Songs  of 
the  boatmen. — Peculiarities  of  Neapolitan  pronunciation. — Excur 
sion  to  Pfestum.— Sickly  inhabitants.— Messina.— Malta.— La  Val 
letta.— The  Catholic  church  in  Malta. 

VALLETTA,  ISLAND  OF  MALTA,  Dec.  29, 1852. 
AT  Marseilles  they  told  me  that  though  there 
are  more  than  fifty  steamers  now  on  the  Mediter 
ranean,  not  a  shipwreck  or  disastrous  accident  of 
any  kind  has  happened  to  any  of  them  since 
steamers  were  first  introduced  on  these  waters, 
with  the  exception  of  a  single  instance,  and  that 
happened  some  twenty  years  since.  They  all 
have  low-pressure  engines,  are  carefully  navi 
gated,  and  the  greater  number  of  them  merely 
make  coasting  voyages,  stopping  at  one  port  after 
another,  and  never  putting  to  sea  when  the 
weather  is  tempestuous.  It  was  in  one  of  these 
steamers  that  on  the  14th  of  this  month  I  took 
passage  for  Naples — a  little  Neapolitan  boat, 
short  and  broad,  tumbling  about  with  every  im 
pulse  of  the  waves  and  wind,  and  working  her 


THE  MARITIME  ALPS.  35 

way  as  well  as  might  be  with  a  weak  engine. 
Tiie  motion,  as  we  proceeded  out  of  the  harbor, 
soon  drove  all  the  passengers  to  their  berths,  ex 
cept  those  who  were  proof  against  the  causes  of 
sea-sickness.  In  passing  between  a  rocky  island 
and  the  coast,  our  poor  boat  had  her  wheels  en 
tangled  among  the  ropes  of  a  net,  and  was  an 
hour  or  more  getting  clear  of  them. 

I  had,  some  years  before,  travelled  the  road 
along  what  is  called  the  Maritime  Alps,  from 
Marseilles  to  Nice,  and  thought  the  scenery  ex 
tremely  grand,  but  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  it  is 
not  finer  when  viewed  from  the  water.  You  take 
broader  views  of  it,  at  least,  and  see  how  its  sev 
eral  parts  add  to  each  other's  effect.  As  the 
mountain  summits,  one  by  one,  rise  before  you — 
the  loftiest,  at  this  season,  glistening  with  snow 
— as  the  gulfs,  and  bays,  and  valleys,  and  ravines, 
one  by  one,  open  upon  you ;  as  town  after  town 
shows  itself,  spread  out  upon  the  shelving  shore, 
or  nestling  in  the  lap  of  hills,  or  seated  on  the 
craggy  heights,  the  attention  is  kept  ever  awake 
with  ever-new  images  of  sublimity  and  beauty. 
A  sea-voyage  is  a  comfortless  thing  always,  at 
least  I  have  found  it  so — but  a  sea-voyage  which 


GENOA. 


shows  such  sights  as  these,  brings  some  compen 
sation  for  its  discomfort. 

In  about  thirty  hours  our  steamer  brought  us 
to  Genoa,  where  the  passengers  were  counted 
like  sheep,  to  see  that  their  number  was  neither 
too  large  nor  too  small ;  and  then,  after  an  hour's 
delay  or  more,  we  were  permitted,  by  the  police 
of  the  place,  to  land,  in  a  dark,  rainy  evening, 
and  proceeded  to  an  hotel — for  these  boats,  while 
in  port  at  any  of  their  stopping-places,  do  not 
concern  themselves  with  providing  for  their  pas 
sengers.  "We  had  a  day — a  bright,  sunny,  cheer 
ful,  winter-day  of  Italy — to  look  at  the  palaces 
and  churches  of  Genoa,  and  all  the  glorious 
views  seen  from  its  heights;  and,  leaving  the 
place  in  the  evening,  were  early  the  next  mom- 
ing  at  Leghorn,  where  the  examination  of  the 
passports  of  those  who  wished  to  land  occasioned 
still  longer  delays.  We  received,  however,  at 
last,  permission  to  go  on  shore,  and  having  break 
fasted  went  by  railway  to  Pisa,  to  get  a  hasty 
look  at  its  antiquities.  Another  night  on  the 
water  brought  us  to  the  port  of  Civita  Vecchia, 
where  we  thought  we  should  be  starved  before 
the  police  would  allow  us  to  land.  At  last  an 


VEXATIONS  FROM   THE   POLICE.  37 

officer  made  his  appearance  on  board  with  writ 
ten  permissions  for  all  of  us,  between  fifty  and 
sixty  in  number ;  our  names  were  called,  and  as 
we  answered  to  them  we  were  permitted  to  step 
down  to  the  boats,  waiting  to  convey  us  to  the 
shore.  We  had  just  time  to  breakfast,  see  the 
greater  number  of  our  fellow-passengers  depart 
on  their  way  to  Rome,  and  make  a  rapid  circuit 
of  the  little  town,  to  be  convinced  that  it  con 
tained  nothing  worth  seeing,  when  the  time  ar 
rived  for  returning  to  our  steamer.  It  had  been 
lightened  of  the  greater  part  of  its  cargo,  and 
now  in  going  out  of  port  bobbed  and  danced  like 
a  cork  upon  the  waves.  After  a  most  unpleasant 
passage,  the  early  light  of  the  fifth  morning  from 
our  embarking  saw  us  rounding  the  coast  of 
Baise,  and  making  our  way  slowly  against  a  north 
wind.  At  half-past  nine  we  dropped  anchor,  but 
nobody  was  permitted  to  go  on  shore  till  an  hour 
and  a  half  afterward,  when  we  stepped  into 
boats,  were  taken  before  the  police  authorities, 
and  received  written  permission  to  remain  in  the 
capital  of  the  kingdom  for  twenty-four  hours,  at 
the  end  of  which  we  were  to  make  application 
either  for  leave  to  remain  still  longer,  or  leave  to 
4 


38  PASSPORTS. 

depart.  We  got  to  our  hotel,  and  breakfasted 
about  twelve  o'clock.  I  have  been  the  more  par 
ticular  in  this  recital  because  it  illustrates  the 
beauty  of  the  passport  system,  and  shows  what 
a  pleasant  thing  it  is  for  the  traveller.  In  France, 
since  the  late  revolution,  this  system  has  been 
somewhat  modified,  and  made  more  tolerable, 
but  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe  it  prevails 
at  the  present  moment  in  its  worst  rigor.  The 
other  day  a  party  of  dragoons  came  on  board  one 
of  the  steamers  touching  at  Messina,  and  took 
the  English  passengers  before  the  police,  where 
they  underwent  an  examination. 

During  our  stay  at  Naples  we  made  an  excur 
sion  to  Psestum,  of  which,  however,  I  should  not 
have  said  much,  were  it  not  for  the  episode  of  a 
visit  to  Amalfi  on  our  way — a  place  remarkable 
for  the  exceeding  beauty  of  its  scenery. 

We  left  Naples  by  the  earliest  railway  train 
for  Nocera,  a  little  town  ten  miles,  perhaps,  be 
yond  Pompeii.  It  had  been  a  cold  night  for  Na 
ples  ;  the  tramontane  winds  had  been  blowing 
for  two  days,  a  calm  still  night  had  succeeded, 
and  the  hoar-frost  was  now  glistening  by  the  side 
of  the  way.  As  we  dismounted  to  take  a  look  at 


ABSENCE   OF   GRASS.  39 

Pompeii  in  passing,  I  found  by  touching  the 
earth  with  the  end  of  my  umbrella  that  the  frost 
had  hardened  to  thin  crust  on  the  surface  of  the 
soil,  though  the  fields  of  lupines  and  broad-beans 
around  us,  already  half  grown,  seemed  uninjured 
by  it.  This  was  a  Neapolitan  winter  in  its  great 
est  severity.  Our  cicerone,  after  a  few  minutes' 
flourish  with  his  hands,  would  stop  to  rub  them 
vehemently,  and  complain  of  the  cold.  As  the 
sun  mounted  the  day  became  warm  and  genial. 
We  returned  to  the  railway,  reached  Nocera  in  a 
few  minutes,  and  made  a  bargain  with  the  most 
respectable  looking  of  the  carriage-drivers  who 
crowded  shouting  around  us,  to  convey  us  to  Sa 
lerno. 

"We  passed  up  among  the  mountains,  through  a 
beautiful  and  fertile  valley,  among  vineyards  and 
plantations  of  the  fig-tree  and  rows  of  olive-trees, 
and  crops  of  every  green  thing  the  season  could 
produce,  except  grass — but  let  no  one  look  for 
grass  in  Southern  Italy.  Every  spot  of  earth 
which  will  bear  tillage  is  furrowed  with  the 
plough  and  turned  with  the  spade,  and  the  only 
places  where  grass  is  allowed  to  spring  up  are 
the  borders  of  the  road  and  the  narrow  edges  of 


40  SALERNO. 

the  fields.  Of  course  you  never  see  any  broad 
expanse  of  greensward,  such  as  with  us  is  so  fresh 
and  grateful  to  the  eye,  and  forms  so  pleasant  a 
carpet  for  the  feet,  unless  in  those  tracts  from 
which  the  cultivator  is  driven  by  the  malaria. 

After  a  drive  of  four  or  five  miles,  we  began  to 
descend  toward  the  sea-shore.  We  Kad  left  on 
our  right  the  grand  mountain  promontory  on 
which  stand  the  towns  of  Sorrento  and  Castella- 
mare,  and  now  the  broad  gulf  of  Salerno  lay  be 
fore  us,  embraced  by  a  semicircle  of  lofty  moun 
tains.  Far  to  the  southeast,  on  a  level  between 
the  base  and  the  sea,  our  driver  pointed  out  to  us 
the  site  of  Paestum.  About  midday  we  were  at 
Salerno,  a  city  of  twenty  thousand  inhabitants, 
dirty  and  noisy,  and  full  of  beggars,  with  olive 
groves  on  the  rocky  slopes  back  of  it,  and  the 
finest  orange  orchards  along  the  shore  which  I 
have  seen  in  Italy,  loaded  and  bending  with  their 
yellow  but  not  fully  ripened  fruit.  It  was  now 
too  late,  they  told  us,  to  think  of  going  to  Paes- 
tum  and  returning  the  same  day ;  we  therefore 
engaged  a  boat  to  take  us  to  Amalfi. 

It  was  a  clumsy  thing,  manned  with  four  row 
ers,  each  of  whom,  standing  upright,  pushed  in- 


BEAUTY   OF   THE   COAST.  41 

stead  of  pulling  a  huge  oar,  held  to  a  pin  in  the 
edge  of  the  boat  by  a  thong,  or  piece  of  rope. 
The  principal  among  them  was  a  merry,  fellow 
from  Amalfi,  about  five  feet  in  height,  wearing 
a  Phrygian  cap,  and  a  dress  composed  of  a  can 
vas  shirt  and  drawers.  He  and  one  of  his 
companions  took  us  on  their  shoulders,  and 
carried  us  through  the  shallow  water  to  the  boat. 
As  the  oarsmen  struck  out  into  the  bay,  he  pulled 
off  his  cap,  threw  it  on  the  seat,  and  encour 
aged  them  by  calling  out,  "Allez,  pull  away,  pull 
away,  ugh."  The  boatmen  in  this  part  of  the 
Mediterranean  appear  to  have  adopted  the  words 
"  pull  away"  from  the  English  sailors,  for  I  heard 
them  using  it  again  at  Messina.  At  every  repe 
tition  of  "Allez,  pull  away,  pull  away,  ugh,"  the 
boatmen  would  lean  to  their  oars  and  redouble 
the  strokes. 

As  we  passed  along  beside  the  rocks  which 
rise  out  of  the  transparent  water  of  the  Mediter 
ranean,  we  were  struck  with  the  wonderful  beau 
ty  of  the  region. 

"  Earth  has  not  anything  to  show  more  fair." 

In  the  recesses  of  the  mountains,  close  to  the 


42  SONGS  OF   THE  BOATMEN. 

sea,  nestled  the  white  villages  of  the  fishermen , 
the  dwellings  of  those  who  tend  the  olive-tree 
and  the  vine  were  clustered  on  the  heights ;  the 
midway  declivities  were  clothed  with  the  gray- 
green  of  olive  groves,  with  thickets  of  the  prickly 
pear  hanging  from  the  cliffs  in  masses  of  uncouth 
vegetation ;  higher  up  grew  trees  of  deeper  ver 
dure,  the  corob,  which  bears  a  sort  of  bean,  im 
bedded  in  a  sweet  pulp,  the  food  of  horses ;  and 
above  them  all,  bare  pinnacles  of  rock  rose  into 
the  clear  blue  sky.  Here  and  there  we  descried 
a  convent,  perched  far  up  in  a  spot  that  seemed 
inaccessible ;  and  on  the  precipices  by  the  sea 
rose  old  towers,  built  to  protect  the  country  from 
the  invasions  of  the  Saracens,  and  long  since 
abandoned.  The  whole  scene  was  bathed  in  a 
mild  golden  sunshine,  and  the  smooth  waves  rip 
pled  softly  on  the  beaches,  or  rolled  with  gentle 
dashes  into  the  caverns  of  the  rocks.  Our  boat 
men  sang  as  they  rowed,  keeping  time  to  the 
stroke  of  their  oars.  Their  songs  were  some 
times  plaintive  and  sometimes  comic,  but  as  they 
were  in  the  Neapolitan  dialect,  I  could  not  make 
out  their  meaning.  Our  courier,  however,  who 
was  four  years  and  a  half  dragoman  to  the  Grand 


NEAPOLITAN  PRONUNCIATION.  43 

Turk  at  Constantinople,  and  who,  besides  Turk 
ish,  Arabic,  and  modern  Greek,  understands  all 
the  dialects  of  Italy,  explained  them  to  us,  and 
made,  what  I  dare  say  was  sprightly  enough  in 
the  original,  very  tedious  in  the  interpretation. 
Besides  other  peculiarities,  which  are  numerous 
enough,  the  people  of  the  Neapolitan  dominions 
have  an  odd  way  of  pronouncing  Italian,  which 
may  be  exemplified  in  English  thus : 

"  Faindly  as  dolls  the  evening  gime 
Our  voices  geep  dune  and  our  oars  geep  dime." 

And  again, 

"  The  rabids  are  near  and  the  daylighd's  bast." 

Just  before  arriving  at  Amalfi,  we  passed  the 
village  of  Atrani,  seated  in  a  steep  and  narrow 
gorge,  where  a  little  stream  comes  down  from 
the  mountains,  and  high  up  among  the  preci 
pices  a  small  white  house  was  pointed  out,  by 
our  merry  friend  the  boatman,  as  the  house  of 
Masaniello,  the  fisherman  who  became  a  poli 
tician  and  a  revolutionist.  "  And  who  was  Ma 
saniello  ?"  I  asked. 

"  He  was  a  great  king  of  the  country,"  an 
swered  the  boatman. 


44  AMALFI. 

This  is  all  that  the  large  majority  of  Masa- 
niello's  countrymen  know  about  him.  The  pa 
triot  and  republican  is  confounded  by  the  people 
with  the  common  rabble  of  dead  kings. 

As  we  approached  Amalfi,  our  little  boatman 
raising  his  cry  of  "  Allez,  pull  away,  pull  away, 
ugh,"  looked  over  his  shoulder  at  us,  nodded  and 
smiled,  and  our  boat  was  soon  upon  the  beach, 
where  a  crowd  of  swarthy  fellows,  in  woollen 
caps  and  tattered  pantaloons,  were  waiting  to 
carry  us  to  the  shore  on  their  shoulders ;  and  as 
soon  as  our  boat  touched  the  sand,  they  gath 
ered  round  it,  up  to  their  knees  in  the  water, 
thrusting  each  other  aside,  and  all  shouting  at 
once.  We  tried  to  select  the  best  only  for  our 
bearers,  and  when  at  length  we  landed,  the  whole 
crowd  ran  after  -us,  every  man  of  them,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  demanding  to  be  paid.  Our  train 
was  further  re-enforced  by  the  beggars,  blind  and 
lame,  who  always  haunt  the  places  where  stran 
gers  are  expected  to  pass.  "We  obtained  a  guide, 
looked  at  the  old  cathedral,  which  contains  little 
of  interest,  and  then  proceeded  to  what  is  called 
the  Valley  of  the  Mills,  a  deep  ravine  between 
precipices  of  immense  height  at  the  mouth  of 


VIEW  FROM  A  GROTTO.  45 

which  this  little  town  of  seven  thousand  inhabit 
ants  is  built.  A  stream — a  brook  rather — rushes 
along  at  the  bottom,  and  turns  seventeen  paper- 
mills.  Orange-trees,  loaded  with  fruit,  overhang 
the  path  from  the  walls  of  narrow  gardens,  and 
other  fruit-trees  of  various  kinds,  not  now  in  leaf, 
and  trailing  plants  in  full  verdure,  nourished  by 
the  perpetual  moisture,  mantle  the  rocks  with 
their  luxuriant  growth.  High  above  rise  the 
crags,  crowned  with  old  dwellings,  castles,  and 
convents  ;  and,  seaward,  through  the  chasm,  you 
have  a  glimpse  of  Salerno,  and  the  mountains  of 
the  opposite  coast.  It  is  a  spot  for  the  pencil, 
and  not  for  description. 

"We  climbed  to  the  Franciscan  convent  over 
looking  the  shore,  and  from  a 'natural  grotto  ex 
tending  deep  into  the  rock,  had  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  shore,  the  sea,  and  the  distant  moun 
tains.  Part  of  the  nearer  crags  were  lying  in 
shadow,  yet  distinct,  a  sort  of  clear-obscure,  and 
part  were  crimson  with  the  descending  sun.  We 
returned  to  Salerno  by  moonlight,  our  boatmen 
singing  the  popular  ballads  of  the  country,  as 
they  passed  under  the  rocks  of  the  shore. 

We  set  out  the  next  morning  for  Psestum  at 


46  JOURNEY   TO   P^ESTUM. 

half-past  four.  For  miles  beyond  Salerno,  we 
found  the  road,  at  that  hour,  full  of  men  and 
women  trooping  to  the  town,  with  donkeys  bear 
ing  loads  of  vegetables  and  roots,  and  wagons 
and  carts  drawn  by  white  oxen,  loaded  with  wine, 
grain,  and  pulse,  the  productions  of  the  country. 
Herds  of  swine  were  driven  by  us,  squealing  as 
they  went,  and  several  flocks  of  sheep.  If  early 
rising  be  a  sign  of  industry,  the  people  of  this 
part  of  Italy  well  deserve  to  be  called  industri 
ous.  We  could  perceive  that  we  were  passing 
through  a  highly  cultivated  region,  though  with 
but  few  inhabitants  ;  but  when  at  length  the  day 
light  came  we  found  ourselves  travelling  alone  in 
a  solitary  level  tract  of  pasturage,  spotted  with 
luxuriant  tufts  of  thistles,  in  which  herds  of 
white  cows  and  black  buffaloes  were  grazing. 
To  our  left  were  the  mountains  with  villages  and 
towns  on  their  sides,  and  the  sea  was  moaning, 
on  our  right.  Further  on,  tracts  of  springing 
wheat  made  their  appearance,  fields  of  turnips 
and  lupines  luxuriantly  green,  with  here  and 
there  a  building  apparently  intended  as  a  store 
house  for  the  crops. 

"There  is  Psestum,"  said  one  of  our  party. 


TEMPLES   SPARED   BY  THE   CLIMATE.  47 

Looking  before  us,  we  saw  at  a  little  distance  the 
majestic  columns  of  the  temple  of  Ceres,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  passed  through  the  opening  made 
by  the  road  in  the  ruined  walls  of  the  ancient 
town,  and  stopped  at  the  door  of  a  house  which 
answered,  in  some. respects,  the  purpose  of  a 
hostelry.  We  found  a  ciceroney  who  carried  a 
bunch  of  keys  and  opened  for  us  the  iron  gate  of 
the  enclosure  in  which  the  Temple  of  Ceres  stands. 
I  will  not  repeat  for  you  what  is  said  in  the 
guide-books  of  these  fine  remains  of  Greek  ar 
chitecture.  The  Temple  of  Neptune,  as  it  is  the 
most  ancient,  is  the  noblest  and  most  imposing 
in  aspect.  It  is  wonderful  how  this  atmosphere, 
in  which  man  sickens  and  dies,  spares  the  work 
of  his  hands.  In  many  parts,  the  architectural 
ornaments  of  the  Temple  of  Neptune  are  as  per 
fect  and  as  sharp  in  outline  as  if  they  were  cut 
yesterday,  and  nowhere  is  the  stone  incrusted 
with  moss,  or  darkened  with  mould ;  time  has 
only  given  it  a  warmer  tint.  The  ground,  within 
their  grand  colonnades,  was  spotted  with  Decem 
ber  daisies,  in  bloom,  and  the  morning  air  was 
scented  with  the  sweet  alyssum,  which  grows 
here  in  profusion,  its  white  flowers,  at  that  time, 


48  BUSTLE  IN   THE  ROADS. 

looking  at  a  little  distance  like  hoar-frost.  I 
was  surprised  to  see  so  much  cultivation;  the 
fields  were  enclosed  with  stone  walls  and  rude 
hedges ;  there  was  a  vineyard  near,  and  planta 
tions  of  fig-trees  ;  and  wheat  had  been  sown  and 
was  just  springing  up,  close,  to  the  foundation- 
stones  of  the  Temple  of  Ceres.  Nor  was  the 
place  so  solitary  as  I  expected  to  find  it.  Trav 
ellers  were  passing  to  and  fro  on  the  highway  by 
which  we  came ;  a  diligence  full  of  passengers 
went  by ;  a  party  of  sportsmen,  with  their  fowl 
ing-pieces,  stopped  at  the  inn ;  we  saw  several 
soldiers  in  uniform  in  the  road,  and  when  we 
wrere  not  within  the  enclosures  containing  the 
temples,  we  had  a  train  of  followers,  some  of 
whom  wanted  to  sell  us  old  coins,  which  they 
pretended  to  have  found,  and  others  importuned 
us  for  alms. 

I  asked  our  guide  if  the  soil  of  the  place  was 
productive.  "  By  no  means,"  he  replied ;  "  the 
earth  is  full  of  salt,  and  there  are  no  springs ;  in 
summer  these  fields  are  scorched  by  a  severe 
drought.  Those  who  cultivate  them  live  at  Car- 
paccio,  yonder,  where  there  is  good  air  and  good 
water."  Here  he  pointed  to  a  village  in  sight, 


SICKLY    INHABITANTS.  49 

half-way  up  the  mountain -side.  "In  summer," 
he  continued,  "this  place  is  so  unhealthy  that 
nobody  dares  to  sleep  here ;  those  who  look  to 
the  crops  come  down  in  the  daytime,  and  return 
before  night-fall.  It  swarms  with  snakes,  too, 
which  in  summer  crawl  out  of  the  old  walls,  and 
are  very  dangerous.  There  are  some  of  the  peo 
ple  who  remain  here  during  the  summer." 

As  he  said  this,  he  pointed  to  a  group  of  half 
a  dozen  people,  none  of  whom  seemed  to  have 
reached  the  middle  term  of  life,  emaciated,  pale, 
and  ragged,  most  of  them  wearing  a  look  of  help 
less  debility.  We  were  then  about  entering  our 
carriage,  to  take  the  luncheon  which  we  had 
brought  with  us.  One  of  our  party  threw  on  the 
ground  the  thigh-bone  of  a  chicken,  which  had 
been  well  picked.  A  boy  stepped  from  the 
sickly  group,  took  it  up,  examined  it  narrowly, 
and  finding  it  perfectly  bare,  threw  it  back  again. 
It  was  evident  that  the  poor  creatures  were  hun 
gry.  We  made  a  pretty  liberal  distribution  of 
bread  and  cheese,  and  bits  of  meat,  among  the 
ghastly  women  and  pallid  children,  and  drove  off 
for  Salerno,  from  which  .we  proceeded  to  Nocera, 
and  reached  Naples  by  the  last  train  for  the  day. 
5 


50  SCYLLA  AND   CHARTBDIS. 

To  the  island  of  Malta  we  came  by  a  French 
steamer — the  Hellespont,  plying  between  Mar 
seilles  and  Alexandria,  a  more  powerful  and 
commodious  boat  than  the  Maria  Antoinetta. 
We  shot  over  smooth  water  by  the  now  harmless 
rock  of  Scylla,  with  a  little  town  behind  it  on  the 
Calabrian  coast,  and  ran  close  by  the  inoffensive 
eddy  of  Charybdis,  near  a  village  of  fisher 
men  on  the  Sicilian  side.  "  They  make  a  great 
deal  of  Scylla  and  Charybdis  in  romances,"  said 
the  second  captain  of  our  steamer,  "  but  they  are 
nothing."  Of  Messina,  where  we  touched,  and 
remained  for  two  or  three  hours,  I  have  only  one 
remark  to  make — that  the  people,  though  slight 
and  short  of  stature,  have  incredibly  powerful 
voices ;  they  are  noisier  than  even  the  Neapoli 
tans.  We  passed  through  the  market-place, 
where  they  were  screaming  their  wares  at  the 
highest  pitch  of  their  voices,  and  I  think  I  was 
never  in  so  deafening  an  uproar.  In  about  forty- 
two  hours  from  the  time  of  leaving  Naples  we 
were  in  the  port  of  Valletta,  the  principal  city  of 
Malta. 

To  a  New  Yorker  it  is  worth  a  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic  to  see  so  clean  a  city  as  Valletta.  It  is 


CLEANLINESS  OF  VALLETTA.  51 

admirably  well  built,  of  a  cream-colored  calcare 
ous  rock,  which  they  hew  with  axes,  and  shape 
with  ease  into  any  form  that  suits  the  architect. 
The  streets  are  paved  with  the  same  material, 
which  is  almost  as  little  soiled  under  the  feet  of 
passengers,  as  the  walls  of  the  houses  themselves. 
Seaward  and  landward  the  town  is  protected  by 
fortification  beyond  fortification,  rampart  beyond 
rampart,  and  several  of  its  gates  are  cut  through 
the  living  rock.  From  the  ramparts,  or  from  the 
flat  housetops  of  the  town,  you  have  a  view  of 
the  interior  of  the  island,  which  presents  a  very 
uninviting  aspect.  High  walls  of  stone  divide  it 
into  little  enclosures,  where  the  rock  is  covered 
with  soil,  brought,  for  the  most  part,  it  is  said, 
from  Sicily.  At  first  sight  one  would  say  that 
there  are  no  trees  on  the  island,  but  on  looking 
more  closely,  you  perceive  rows  of  sprawling  fig- 
trees  planted  by  the  walls,  their  boughs  given  off 
close  to  the  ground,  and  here  and  there  a  corob- 
tree,  an  evergreen,  larger  but  equally  sprawling. 
All  the  trees  on  this  island,  except  those  which 
grow  in  the  lower  and  moister  situations,  have 
this  tendency  to  put  out  their  branches  close  to 
the  earth,  and  to  creep  rather  than  to  rise. 


52  BIGOTRY  OF  THE  MALTESE. 

Whether  it  be  the  effect  of  the  sea-winds  which 
sweep  over  the  island  from  every  point  of  the 
compass,  or  of  the  want  of  depth  of  soil,  I  do 
not  profess  to  decide. 

Just  now  a  question  of  local  politics  has  arisen 
in  .the  island,  which  is  not  without  general  inter 
est.  When  the  English  took  possession  of  the 
Island  of  Malta,  they  engaged  to  maintain  the 
Eoman  Catholic  church  in  all  its  existing  rights. 
This  does  not  seem  to  have  been  understood  to 
imply  that  other  modes  of  worship  were  not  to 
be  tolerated,  and,  accordingly,  other  denomina 
tions  of  Christians  have  established  their  wor 
ship  here.  When,  however,  some  years  since,  the 
Methodists  built  a  church  in  Valletta,  they  were 
prohibited  from  giving  it  any  of  the  external  in 
dications  of  a  place  for  public  devotions.  Since 
that  time,  and  within  a  few  years,  a  very  fine 
building,  in  which  the  service  of  the  Anglican 
church  is  performed,  has  been  erected  :  the  most 
conspicuous  in  appearance  of  all  the  churches  in 
Valletta.  This  seems  to  have  given  some  dis 
pleasure  to  the  Catholic  priesthood,  and  to  the 
original  Maltese  population,  who,  to  a  man,  are 
devout  Catholics. 


RELIGIOUS  DISPUTES.  53 

A  new  criminal  code  has  lately  been  drawn  up 
for  the  island  ;  a  code  very  judiciously  framed, 
in  general,  as  I  am  told,  and  to  which  it  is  very 
desirable  that  validity  should  be  given  as  early 
as  possible.  It  has,  however,  been  the  subject 
of  long  debate  and  consideration  in  the  Council 
of  the  island.  Malta  you  know  is  ruled  by  a  gov 
ernor  and  a  council  the  members  of  which  are 
partly  appointed  by  the  home  government,  and 
partly  elected  by  the  people.  In  one  of  the  arti 
cles  providing  punishment  for  the  disturbance  of 
public  worship,  the  Roman  Catholic  church  is 
styled  the  dominant  church  of  the  country.  This 
expression,  after  a  vehement  struggle  on  the  part 
of  the  Catholics  to  retain  it,  has  just  been  struck 
out  of  the  code.  Those  who  desired  to  retain  it 
argued  with  some  plausibility  that  the  British 
government  found  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
dominant  in  Malta,  and  by  promising  to  main 
tain  it  in  the  exercise  of  its  rights,  had  engaged 
to  keep  it  so.  Those  who  insisted  on  striking  out 
the  expression,  took  the  higher  ground  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  argued  that  under  a  just  gov 
ernment  all  forms  of  religion  should  be  placed  on 
a  footing  of  equality  in  the  eye  of  the  law. 
5* 


54  DEPARTURE  FOR  EGYPT. 

The  archbishop  of  Malta  has  written  a  letter 
to  the  governor  of  the  island,  protesting  against 
the  omission  of  the  epithet  "  dominant,"  as  ap 
plied  to  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  dignitary,  and 
declaring  that  if  the  word  is  not  restored,  he  and 
his  clergy  will  petition  the  home  government  for 
its  restoration.  The  governor  has  answered  that 
there  is  no  probability  that  the  home  government 
will  grant  the  petition.  The  petition  has  proba 
bly  by  this  time  been  forwarded. 

To-morrow  we  shall  probably  leave  this  place  in 
an  English  steamer  for  Egypt. 


PASSENGERS  TO  INDIA.  55 


LETTEK  V. 

Voyage  from  Malta  to  Cairo.— A  steamer  crowded  with  passengers  from 
England  to  India.— Ill-bred  people.— Fortune,  the  botanist.— The 
tea-plant  in  America  and  India.— The  grape  in  China  and  Japan.— 
A  Chinese  fruit  for  America.— A  hardy  palm.— Arrival  at  Alexan 
dria.— Confusion  of  the  landing.— Passage  to  Cairo.— The  canal.— 
the  Nile.— Arab  devotions.— Youth  drowned  in  the  Nile. 

CAIRO,  EGYPT,  January  12th,  1853. 

I  LEFT  Malta  on  the  30th  December  in  the 
British  steamer  Ripon,  proceeding  to  Alexandria 
in  one  of  her  monthly  voyages  from  Southamp 
ton.  Her  commander  was  Captain  Moresby,  a 
veteran  in  the  British  naval  service,  known  to 
geographers  by  his  chart  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
Maldive  Islands.  We  found  a  crowd  of  English 
on  board  on  their  way  to  India,  army-officers, 
civilians,  medical  men,  a  score  of  ladies,  a  lord 
or  two,  the  Governor  of  Hong  Kong,  a  Chief 
Justice  of  the  India  bench,  and  a  large  number 
of  cadets,  some  of  them  scarcely  full  grown,  sent 
out  to  fill  the  civil  and  military  employments, 
which  are  kept  for  young  men  who  must  be  pro 
vided  for. 

"  These  youths,"  said  a  Major  in  the  British 
service,  who  had  been  my  fellow-passenger  on 


56  ILL-BRED  PEOPLE. 

board  of  the  Arctic,  and  whom  I  was  very  glad 
to  meet  again,  "  will  find,  in  the  climate  of  India, 
a  severe  trial  for  their  constitutions ;  and  yet  it 
is  necessary  that  they  should  go  out  thus  early, 
in  order  to  qualify  them  properly  for  the  posts 
they  are  to  hold.  A  great  many  of  them  will 
die,  and  leave  their  places  vacant  for  other  ad 
venturers."  I  looked  at  their  fresh  and  healthy 
countenances,  as  he  said  this,  and  wished  them 
well  through  the  trial ;  but  a  fate  was  hanging 
over  one  of  them  more  sudden  and  disastrous 
than  any  of  us  could  possibly  anticipate. 

The  cabins  in  the  Ripon,  called  with  us  state 
rooms,  contain  each  generally  four  berths,  and 
when  occupied  by  more  than  two  persons,  are 
particularly  inconvenient.  As  we  found  no  one 
of  them  vacant,  our  party  was  billeted  in  differ 
ent  chambers,  among  persons  who  doubtless 
wished  us  back  to  America  with  all  their  hearts. 
The  proportion  of  ill-bred  people  on  board  was 
greater  than  I  expected  to  find.  Passengers, 
late  at  night,  would  come  singing  to  their  berths, 
or  whistle  perseveringly  as  they  turned  over  and 
arranged  the  contents  of  their  portmanteaus,  or 
bore  you  with  their  elbows,  and  commit  various 


FORTUNE   THE   BOTAXIST.  57 

other  acts  of  petty  rudeness.  One  day — it  was 
the  first  of  January — the  captain  gave  champagne 
at  dinner,  and  immediately  a  strife  arose  among 
about  a  third  part  of  the  passengers,  as  it  seemed 
to  me,  to  see  who  should  get  possession  of  the 
bottles,  and  swallow  the  most  of  their  contents. 
The  supply  was  liberal,  and  we  had  a  noisy 
night. 

Among  the  passengers  was  Mr.  Fortune,  the 
botanist  and  traveller,  who  had  already  made 
two  visits  to  China,  with  a  view  of  ascertaining 
which  of  the  vegetable  productions  of  that  coun 
try  might  be  advantageously  introduced  into  the 
British  dominions,  and  was  now  proceeding  on 
a  third  voyage  to  Shanghae,  by  way  of  India. 
I  sought  an  acquaintance  with  him,  which  he 
did  not  decline,  and  I  was  much  interested  by 
his  conversation.  "  You  are  attempting  the  in 
troduction  of  the  tea-plant  into  America,"  he 
said,  "but  I  doubt  whether  you  will  succeed. 
Your  climate,  with  its  warm  summer,  is  well 
adapted  to  its  cultivation,  and  you  will  probably 
have  no  difficulty  in  finding  soils  suitable  for  its 
growth ;  but  labor  is  so  dear  in  the  United 
States,  and  so  cheap  in  China,  that  the  Chinese 


58  THE  TEA-CULTURE. 

will  send  it  to  your  doors  at  far  less  cost  than 
you  can  produce  it  at  home.  I  am  at  present 
engaged  in  the  experiment  of  introducing  the 
tea-plant  into  India.  On  the  slopes  of  the  Him 
alaya  mountains  are  a  soil  and  climate  perfectly 
adapted  to  its  cultivation  ;  a  country  where  land 
can  be  had  for  almost  nothing,  and  labor  costs 
very  little.  Here  we  are  now  forming  gardens  of 
the  tea-plant,  and  I  have,  for  my  part,  no  doubt 
of  the  success  of  the  undertaking." 

"We  talked  of  the  culture  of  the  grape  in 
America.  "If,  as  you  say,"  said  Mr.  Fortune, 
"  the  European  grape  does  not  succeed  well  with 
you,  I  should  advise  you  to  import  stocks  from 
those  varieties  of  it  which  are  cultivated  in 
China,  where  the  climate  so  much  resembles 
your  own  in  its  changes  and  extremes.  In  the 
northern  parts  of  China  'which  I  visited,  I  found 
a  table  grape  very  common,  though  they  make 
no  wine.  You  might  easily  have  the  plants 
brought  over,  as  you  are  now  beginning  to  have 
a  pretty  extensive  commerce  with  the  ports 
north  of  Canton.  We  have  better  fruit  of  the 
kind  in  Europe  than  I  saw  there,  but  you  might 
perhaps  improve  it. 


THE   YANG-MAE.  59 

"  There  is  one  kind  of  fruit,"  he  continued, 
"which  I  am  introducing  into  Northern  India, 
and  which,  I  am  sure,  would  succeed  in  some 
parts  of  your  country.  It  is  called  in  China  the 
yang-mae — a  fruit  of  the  size  of  a  plum,  resem 
bling  that  of  the  arbutus,  but  larger — a  crimson 
berry,  covered  all  over  with  small  projecting 
points,  very  agreeable  to  the  pala«te,  and  with 
just  acidity  enough  in  its  flavor  to  make  it  re 
freshing.  You  have  in  America  some  plants  of 
the  genus  to  which  it  belongs,  the  myrica" 

I  instanced  the  myrica  cerifera,  or  candleberry 
myrtle,  bearing  large  quantities  of  berries. 

"  The  yang-mae  also,"  proceeds  Mr.  Fortune, 
"  is  an  abundant  bearer.  It  will  not  answer  for 
England,  as  our  summers  are  not  warm  enough, 
but  in  those  parts  of  the  United  States,  where 
the  mercury  in  Fahrenheit's  thermometer  does 
not  fall  in  winter  below  twenty,  or,  at  the  utmost, 
twelve  degrees,  and  where  you  have  a  nice  warm 
summer" — such  was  his  phrase — "to  ripen  it,  the 
fruit  would  be  produced  in  perfection.  It  would 
be  well  worth  the  while  of  some  of  your  horticul 
turists  to  take  measures  for  introducing  it  from 
the  northern  parts  of  China." 


A  HARDY   PALM. 


In  a  subsequent  conversation,  Mr.  Fortune 
mentioned  a  hardy  kind  of  palm,  the  only  one 
which  will  grow  in  cold  climates,  and  very  com 
mon  in  some  parts  of  China.  "  It  requires,"  he 
observed,  "  a  warm  summer,  and  will  bear  a  se 
vere  winter,  and  is  the  very  tree  for  the  United 
States.  It  is  a  chamcerops,  a  genus  of  the  palm 
family,  of  which  there  are  several  species,  all  of 
them  tropical  plants  but  this.  It  looks  strange, 
in  the  depth  of  winter,  to  see  this  tree,  apparently 
a  production  of.  the  tropics,  with  its  large  ever 
green  leaves  loaded  with  snow.  The  Chinese 
obtain  from  the  upper  part  of  it  a  kind  of  net 
work,  the  sheathing  of  the  young  leaves,  knotted 
with  the  most  perfect  regularity,  which  they  ap 
ply  to  many  useful  purposes." 

On  his  way  to  China,  Mr.  Fortune  was  taking 
out  with  him  to  Calcutta  several  cases  contain 
ing  cinchona  plants — the  tree  which  produces  the 
Peruvian  bark — brought  from  South  America, 
with  the  design  of  introducing  it  into  India. 

As  we  approached  Egypt,  the  weather  grew 
rainy,  and  at  length  the  pharos  of  Alexandria 
appeared  above  a  low,  flat  shore.  A  pilot  of  slen 
der  figure,  a  little  stooping,  with  a  dirty  white 


ARRIVAL   AT   ALEXANDRIA.  61 

turban  on  his  head,  and  a  loose  blue  bag  cover 
ing  his  legs  from  the  waist  to  a  little  below  the 
knee,  came  on  board.  Our  steamer  made  a  sud 
den  turn,  swept  into  the  harbor,  and  dropped  an 
chor  in  a  violent  shower,  under  fortifications 
bristling  with  guns  placed  in  full  sight.  On  land 
ing  we  were  at  once  surrounded  by  a  mob  of  fel 
lows  in  white  turbans  or  fez  caps,  and  blue  cotton 
shirts  tied  round  the  waist  by  a  string,  offering 
us  their  donkeys  with  loud  shouts,  thrusting  each 
other  aside  to  get  at  us,  and  blocking  our  way  so 
that  we  could  not  get  forward  a  single  step.  As 
there  was  apparently  no  alternative,  I  took  the 
one  who  stood  immediately  before  me  by  the 
throat,  shoved  him  out  of  my  way,  and  then  at 
tacked  the  next  in  like  manner,  till  I  made  my 
escape  out  of  the  crowd.  The  good-natured 
Mussulmans  smiled  at  finding  themselves  thus 
unceremoniously  handled  by  an  infidel,  and  I 
jumped  upon  one  of  the  best  looking  of  their  an 
imals,  and  trotted  off  through  streets  swimming 
with  white  mud  to  the  hotel,  followed  by  a  shout 
ing  donkey-driver,  who  brandished  a  long  stick, 
which  he  occasionally  brought  down  on  the  quad 
ruped's  flanks  to  encourage  his  speed. 


62  THE  TOWN. 

Brief  space  was  allowed  us  to  look  from  oui 
hotel  windows  at  the  strange  spectacle  of  people 
in  oriental  costumes,  men  and  women,  walking 
the  streets,  or  trotting  gently  by  on  asses,  or  urg 
ing  forward  laden  camels.  We  had  a  gallop  on 
donkeys,  attended  by  a  dragoman  richly  dressed 
for  the  occasion,  to  attract  custom,  and  three  or 
four  donkey-drivers  running  on  foot,  to  Cleopa 
tra's  Needle  and  Pompey's  Pillar,  which  I  will 
not  tire  you  with  describing.  I  have  scarcely 
time  to  notice  a  spacious  garden  by  which  we 
passed,  full  of  lofty  date-palms  and  large-leaved 
bananas,  or  to  observe  the  beauty  of  an  avenue 
through  which  we  went,  planted  with  cassia-trees 
in  full  verdure.  In  a  short  time  we  were  on 
board  the  boat  destined  to  take  us  to  the  Nile, 
through  the  broad  canal  opened  by  the  late 
pacha,  Mehemet  Ali.  Here  forty  or  fifty  passen 
gers,  who  had  come  by  the  steamer  Eipon  to  Alex 
andria,  passed  the  night,  as  well  as  they  might, 
on  benches,  tables,  and  camp-stools.  I  grew 
tired  of  my  hard  couch,  and  went  on  deck  before 
the  day  dawned.  The  moon,  in  her  wane,  was 
in  the  firmament,  which  seemed  enlarged  to  an 
immense  depth ;  and  the  deck,  in  the  transparent 


THE   CA2fAL.  63 

atmosphere,  was  drenched  with  dew.  A  small 
steamer  was  dragging  us  along  the  canal,  and  at 
the  helm  of  our  boat  stood  an  Egyptian,  in  a 
shaggy  brown  capote,  motionless  as  a  statue,  with 
one  or  two  in  the  same  garb  squatted  on  the  deck 
near  him.  To  the  right  and  left  nothing  was  to 
be  seen  but  the  heaps  of  mould  formed  in  dig 
ging  the  canal. 

When  the  day  broke  we  found  ourselves  glid 
ing  on  between  rows  of  large  trees  in  luxuriant 
leaf :  the  cassia,  the  thorny  acacia,  called  by  the 
ancients  the  acanthus,  and  the  sycamore,  a  tree 
producing  a  kind  of  fig,  which  forms  a  consider 
able  part  of  the  food  of  the  Egyptians.  From  time 
to  time  we  passed  villages  on  the  bank,  built  of 
unburnt  brick,  with  low,  flat  roofs,  looking  like 
the  habitations  of  mud-wasps  magnified.  Each 
had  its  mosque,  with  a  minaret  of  hewn  stone, 
from  which  the  hour  of  prayer  is  proclaimed. 
Their  inmates,  in  turbans  and  long  blue  or  white 
cotton  shirts,  were  creeping  out  of  them  in  the 
early  sunshine,  and  walking  carefully  on  the  wet 
and  slippery  declivity.  Among  them  were 
women  in  blue  cotton  gowns,  barefooted,  with 
infants  perched  on  their  shoulders.  This  is  the 


64  ARAB   AND   COPTIC   MOTHERS. 

way  in  which  the  Arab  mothers,  of  the  laboring 
class  in  Egypt,  carry  their  children ;  as  soon  as 
the  little  creatures  get  the  primary  use  of  their 
limbs,  they  are  transferred  from  the  arms  to  the 
shoulders.  I  have  seen  instances  of  this  cus 
tom  which  would  supply  striking  subjects  for 
the  pencil.  At  Old  Cairo,  the  other  day,  a 
Coptic  woman,  in  the  loose  blue  dress  of  the 
country,  barefooted,  her  face  unveiled,  with  dark 
symmetrical  features,  silent  and  sad-looking, 
opened  to  us  the  door  of  the  old  worm-eaten 
church  in  which  is  the  little  grotto  where  the 
Holy  Virgin,  with  her  child,  is  said  to  have  eluded 
the  pursuit  of  Herod.  On  the  woman's  shoulder 
sat  an  infant  of  seven  or  eight  months,  as  silent 
as  the  mother,  with  well-formed  brown  cheeks 
and  long  dark  eyelashes,  its  head  bowed  upon 
hers,  and  one  little  hand  pressed  against  her 
forehead  while  the  other  arm  was  passed  around 
the  back  of  the  neck.  The  Egyptian  mothers 
treat  their  children  with  great  tenderness,  and 
though  I  see  infants  everywhere,  I  do  not  know 
that  I  have  yet  heard  one  of  them  cry.  The  ex 
pression  of  quiet  resignation  in  their  faces  is  often 
quite  touching.  The  Egyptian,  born  to  a  lot  of 


THE  NILE.  65 

dirt,  poverty,  and  oppression,  may  well  learn  pa 
tience  early. 

At  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  readied  the 
Nile,  and  were  transferred  to  a  steamer.  About 
half  the  passengers  of  the  Ripon  had  been  sent 
on  a  little  before  us  by  another.  We  passed  a 
day  on  the  Nile,  and  had  ample  opportunity  to 
observe  the  character  of  the  great  river  and  its 
banks.  It  is  a  turbid  stream,  like  the  Missis 
sippi,  flowing  rapidly  toward  the  ocean,  between 
banks  of  fine  mould,  which  are  easily  undermined, 
and  crumble  into  the  current.  The  broad,  level 
tracts  by  which  it  is  bordered  have  the  same 
dark  rich  soil  as  that  which  lies  about  our  rivers 
of  the  West.  Along  the  bank  where  the  current 
has  worn  it  away,  you  see  distinctly  the  layers 
of  mould,  which,  year  after  year,  have  been  de 
posited  by  the  successive  inundations,  and  which 
attest  that  the  land  of  Egypt  has  been  gradually 
rising  for  ages.  The  bed  of  the  river  appears  to 
have  been  raised  also  in  an  equal  degree,  and  I 
have  been  told  by  those  who  have  made  the  ex 
amination  for  themselves,  that,  although  in  some 
places  the  sands  of  the  desert,  blown  by  the 
winds,  have  encroached  upon  the  fertile  grounds, 


66  THE  DELTA  EXTENDING. 

in  others  the  area  of  fertility  has  been  extended. 
Broad  tracts  of  sand,  which  the  waters  never 
reached  before,  have  been  overlaid  by  the  slime 
of  the  river,  and,  after  one  or  two  inundations, 
covered  with  harvests. 

The  country  on  each  side  of  the  Nile  was  green 
with  tracts  of  clover,  lentiles,  barley,  and  other 
grains  and  pulse.  Groves  of  the  date-palm  ap 
peared  by  the  river-side,  and  showed  their  lofty 
tops  at  a  distance ;  here  and  there  were  seen 
clumps  of  the  cassia  and  acanthus,  or  a  huge 
branching  sycamore,  overshadowing  the  tomb  of 
a  Mahommedan  saint.  As  the  day  wore  on,  we 
saw  men  beginning  their  daily  toil  of  raising  wa 
ter  from  the  river  by  means  of  a  wheel  turned  by 
a  donkey,  and  furnished  with  buckets,  to  irrigate 
the  surrounding  fields.  Women,  some  of  them 
carefully  concealing  their  faces,  and  others  leav 
ing  them  exposed,  came  down  to  the  stream,  and 
filled  large  earthen  jars  with  the  water,  which 
they  bore  off  on  their  heads.  People  in  turbans, 
carrying  long  pipes,  were  seen  walking,  or  riding 
donkeys,  sometimes  with  an  attendant,  or  run 
ning  on  foot,  along  the  causeys  built  to  form  a 
passage  from  place  to  place  during  the  floods. 


ARAB  DEVOTION.  G? 

Our  captain  and  his  crew  were  Egyptians, 
though  the  engineer  was  an  Englishman.  They 
set  us  an  edifying  example  of  Mahommedan  devo 
tion.  As  the  Mussulman  prays  four  times  a  day, 
and  not  more  than  one  of  the  hands  could  be 
spared  from  his  employment  at  any  one  time, 
there  was  scarcely  an  hour  of  the  day  in  which 
some  one  of  them  was  not  in  the  act  of  prayer. 
Each  of  them,  as  his  turn  came,  mounted  the 
right  wheel-house,  and  made  his  prostrations, 
and  murmured  his  devotions  with  closed  eyes 
and  moving  lips  in  the  presence  of  all  the  passen 
gers. 

At  length,  after  a  second  uncomfortable  night 
passed  on  benches  and  stools,  we  reached  the 
landing-place  of  the  steamer  Bulak,  a  mile  or 
thereabouts  below  Cairo.  We  were  conveyed  by 
omnibuses  through  a  fine  avenue  of  trees  with 
dense  foliage  to  our  hotels,  in  the  Frank  quarter 
of  the  city.  Here  we  heard  of  the  fate  of  one  of 
our  fellow-passengers  in  the  Eipon.  He  was  a 
fair-haired  youth,  scarcely  grown  to  his  full  stat 
ure,  of  the  name  of  Frazer,  who,  with  another  of 
the  same  age,  was  going  out  to  his  father  in 
India,  leaving  a  mother  in  England.  I  had  ob- 


68  A   YOUNG   MAN   DROWNED. 

served  him  always  with  his  young  friend,  and 
had  been  interested  not  a  little  by  his  ingenuous 
physiognomy.  In  coming  on  from  Alexandria 
to  Cairo  the  passengers  by  the  Bipon  had  been 
separated  into  two  divisions,  and  sent  on  by  dif 
ferent  steamers ;  the  one  which  had  the  young 
Frazer  on  board,  preceded  by  three  or  four  hours 
the  one  in  which  I  was.  In  climbing  some  part 
of  the  rigging,  the  evening  before  our  arrival,  he 
missed  his  hold  and  fell  into  the  river.  The 
steamer  was  immediately  stopped,  and  everything 
done  to  save  him,  but  to  no  purpose.  He  strove 
to  swim  toward  the  steamer  against  the  strong 
current ;  he  breasted  it  gallantly  for  a  while,  but 
it  carried  him  down,  and  he  appeared  no  more. 
He  sleeps  with  the  Pharaohs  and  the  shepherd- 
kings.  His  father  and  mother  will  hear  of  his 
death  almost  at  the  same  moment ;  the  one  by 
the  caravan  of  adventurers  who  came  on  with  us 
on  their  way  to  India,  and  the  other  by  the  re 
turn  of  the  Eipon  to  England. 


ASPECT  OP  CAIRO.  69 


LETTER  VI. 


Sights  and  sounds  of  Cairo.— Aspect  of  the  crowd  in  the  streets.— 
Women. —The  bazars. — The  barbers. — Mosques. — Noisy  habits  of  the 
Egyptians. — Mosque  of  Mohammed  AH. — The  pyramids  of  Ghizeh. — 
Arab  boatmen.— Bedouins.— Purpose  of  the  pyramids.— Pyramids  of 
Sakkara.— M.  Mariette  and  his  excavations.— Temple  and  tomb  of. 
Api?. — The  site  of  Memphis. — Mounds  of  sun-dried  brick. — Vast 
grove  of  palms. — Saltpetre  manufactured  from  the  bricks. 


CAIRO,  EGYPT,  January  29tli,  1853. 
MY  last  letter  closed  with  my  arrival  at  Cairo. 
As  I  left  my  hotel  that  morning,  forcing  my  way 
with  some  violence  through  the  crowd  of  Mos 
lems  offering  their  donkeys,  I  found  myself  walk 
ing  in  crooked,  unpaved  streets,  on  the  ancient 
mould  of  the  Nile,  trodden  by  human  feet  since 
Cairo  was  first  founded,  and  still  almost  as  soft 
and  elastic  as  a  Turkey  carpet.  About  me  were 
flat-roofed  houses,  with  projecting,  covered  bal 
conies,  a  palm-tree  here  and  there  rising  over 
them,  or  a  minaret  with  its  encircling  balconies. 
It  seemed  as  if  I  had  been  introduced  at  once 
into  a  dirty  masquerade.  I  was  among  swarthy- 
bearded  men,  with  glittering  white  teeth,  passing 
to  and  fro  on  foot  or  on  asses — men  in  turbans 
or  close  caps  of  every  color,  their  feet  in  red  or 


70  THE   STREETS. 

yellow  slippers,  or  bare ;  their  legs  in  loose  blue  01 
white  bags,  or  concealed  by  a  robe  of  striped  silk, 
reaching  to  their  feet,  or  by  a  long  white  shirt, 
over  which  was  worn  a  black,  brown,  or  green 
robe,  with  wide,  flowing  sleeves.  Sometimes  a 
Greek  passed  in  his  white  petticoat,  sometimes  a 
priest  of  the  Greek  church,  or  an  Armenian,  ec 
clesiastic  in  his  ample  black  robe.  Barefooted 
women  in  loose  blue  cotton  gowns  came  in  the 
crowd,  bearing  water-jars  on  their  heads,  or  bun 
dles  of  green  clover  freshly  cut,  and  holding 
with  one  hand  their  coarse  blue  mantles  closely 
over  the  lower  part  of  the  face.  These  were  of 
the  laboring  class ;  but  here  and  there  was  seen 
one  of  their  more  opulent  sisters,  moving  along 
the  street,  in  wide  slippers,  with  a  waddling  gait — 
a  pile  of  glistening  silks  or  of  white  muslin,  with 
a  pair  of  eyes  visible  at  the  top,  and  on  each  side 
the  tips  of  her  fingers,  where  they  held  the  mantle 
drawn  closely  over  her  forehead.  Sometimes  the 
lady  was  mounted  astride  on  a  donkey,  with  a 
domestic  to  hold  her  in  her  seat,  and  keep  her 
from  being  jolted  ;  her  mantle,  gathering  the 
wind  as  she  went,  made  her  look  like  an  enor 
mous  sack,  placed  upright  on  the  saddle. 


BAZARS.  71 

Water-carriers,  with  their  legs  bare  from  the 
middle  of  the  thigh  downward,  were  driving  asses 
laden  with  the  water  of  the  Nile  in  goat-skins. 
Sometimes  a  large  procession  of  asses,  carrying 
panniers  filled  with  fresh  masses  of  plaster  of 
Paris,  would  block  the  way.  At  other  times,  in 
the  narrower  passages,  we  had  to  wait  till  half  a 
score  of  camels  had  gone  by,  bearing  on  each 
side  a  block  of  stone  just  cut  from  the  quarries, 
or  an  enormous  beam  of  wood.  Now  and  then 
the  street  was  occupied  with  a  train  of  carts — 
almost  the  only  vehicle  seen  with  wheels  in  Cairo. 
The  wheels  were  singularly  loose  on  the  axles, 
and  as  they  staggered  along  and  wavered  from 
side  to  side,  threatened  to  knock  down  the  un 
wary  passenger.  We  passed  through  the  bazars 
— as  the  streets  occupied  by  the  traders  are 
called — over-canopied  for  the  most  part  by  mats 
stretched  across  from  the  uppermost  stories,  or 
by  roofs  of  thin  boards  with  openings  for  ventila 
tion.  Here  sat  the  merchants  of  Cairo,  cross- 
legged,  in  the  dark  little  recesses  wrhich  serve 
them  as  shops,  some  smoking,  some  chaffering 
volubly  with  their  customers,  some  occupied  in 
marking  the  articles  they  sold,  a  few  lying  asleep 


72  THE  BARBERS. 

on  their  mats.  In  the  open  squares  the  barbers 
had  brought  out  their  mats  and  begun  their 
work.  Taking  the  head  of  a  Mussulman  between 
his  knees  and  pulling  off  the  turban,  the  squat 
ting  operator  would  ply  his  razor  with  surprising 
quickness  of  motion,  and  in  a  few  minutes  turn 
out  the  skull  of  his  patient  as  smooth  as  a  turnip. 
Here  women  were  sitting  in  the  dust,  bare-legged, 
with  bosoms  more  than  half  exposed  under  their 
loose  garments,  but  with  their  faces  concealed 
under  a  dirty  rag,  selling  oranges  and  dates  from 
broad,  shallow  baskets.  Here  squalid  men,  the 
filthiest  of  their  race,  were  sitting  with  their 
backs  against  the  walls,  smoking,  or  sunning 
themselves,  and  in  the  angles  of  the  buildings 
were  young  puppies  huddling  together  where 
they  were  littered,  while  the  prick-eared  mother 
had  left  them  to  prowl  for  food  or  bark  at  the 
Frank  stranger.  Our  arrival  in  one  of  these 
squares  was  sometimes  the  signal  for  a  general 
chorus  from  all  the  dogs  of  the  neighborhood. 

As  we  went  on,  we  peeped  into  the  doors  and 
windows  of  several  of  the  mosques,  of  a  venera 
ble  appearance  without,  but  ill-built,  ruinous,  and 
ill-patched  within,  the  carved  wooden  portions 


NOISY  POPULATION.  73 

going  to  decay  and  dropping  to  the  floor.  In 
them  squatted  groups  of  the  faithful  on  their 
mats,  with  rosaries  in  their  hands,  chanting  their 
morning  prayers.  Near  the  mosques  we  often 
heard  a  clamorous  chorus  of  shrill  voices  ;  it  was 
from  the  schools,  where  the  boys  were  commit 
ting  their  lessons  to  memory,  by  repeating  them 
aloud. 

From  all  the  multitude  engaged  in  these  em 
ployments  arose  a  perpetual  noise,  not  of  the 
clanking  and  humming  of  machinery,  and  the 
rattling  of  carriages,  and  the  striking  of  iron 
hoofs  on  the  pavement,  as  in  our  cities ;  but  of 
human  voices,  greeting,  arguing,  jesting,  laugh 
ing,  shouting,  scolding,  cursing,  praying,  and  beg 
ging,  mingled  with  the  bleating  of  camels,  the 
braying  of  asses,  and  the  barking  of  innumera 
ble  dogs.  It  is  a  mistake  to  speak  of  the  Ori 
ental  as  grave,  solemn,  and  quiet ;  the  Egyptian, 
at  least,  is  the  liveliest  and  noisiest  of  slaves. 
Everything  in  this  country  is  done  with  noise. 
Two  rowers  never  pull  their  oars,  even  for  five 
minutes,  without  alternate  chants  and  responses ; 
not  a  stone  is  moved  to  its  place  in  a  building 
without  the  same  accompaniment ;  the  quarries 

7 


74  A  VIEW  OF  THE  DELTA. 

east  of  Cairo  resound  with  a  shrill  and  ceaseless 
clamor  of  'tongues.  The  most  trivial  affairs  of 
life  are  the  subject  of  discussions  that  seem  to 
have  no  end.  Every  new  object  or  new  incident 
is  a  signal  for  a  volley  of  words  from  old  and 
young.  The  camel-driver  sings  all  day  to  the 
animals  he  leads  ;  and  when  he  watches  them  by 
night  in  the  desert,  keeps  himself  awake  by  the 
exercise  of  his  voice. 

I  was  much  struck  with  this  chorus  of  sounds, 
when  the  other  day  I  visited  the  citadel,  and  from 
the  site  of  the  magnificent  mosque  of  Mohammed 
Ali,  beheld  the  city  below  me  with  its  swarming 
streets,  and  the  fields  and  gardens  of  vivid  green 
surrounding  it,  intersected  with  thronged  roads. 
All  around  this  scene  of  life  and  noise  lay  the 
silence  and  desolation  of  the  desert — the  vast 
Lybian  desert  to  the  west,  with  the  everlasting 
pyramids  at  its  edge,  around  which  millions  of 
human  beings  of  the  elder  world  sleep  in  their 
pits  and  caves ; — and  to  the  east,  a  desert  as 
broad  and  still,  on  the  skirts  of  which  stand  the 
tombs  of  the  later  sovereigns  of  Egypt  among 
the  graves  of  their  subjects. 

The  mosque  of  which  I  have  spoken  is  one  of 


MOSQUE   OF   MOHAMMED   ALT.  75 

the  very  finest  works  of  Oriental  architecture ; 
but  it  is  built  under  the  superintendence  of  Euro 
pean  architects,  though  with  Egyptian  materials, 
by  the  munificence  of  an  Egyptian  sovereign. 
A  vast  colonnade  of  Egyptian  alabaster,  in  the 
Moorish  style,  surrounds  the  building  and  its 
court.  You  are  struck  at  first  with  the  lightness 
and  airiness  of  its  appearance,  but  you  are  some 
what  disappointed  when  you  perceive  that  the 
columns  of  this  beautiful  mosque  are  held  in 
their  place  by  a  horizontal  bar  of  iron,  passing 
from  capital  to  capital,  and  that  each  capital  has 
also  a  transverse  iron  bar  connecting  it  with  the 
wall  opposite.  This  expedient  is  a  common  one 
in  Egyptian  architecture,  but  the  older  mosques 
have  bars  of  wood.  No  such  disappointment 
awaits  you  when  you  enter  the  mosque  itself. 
It  is  spacious  and  lofty,  and  the  simplicity  of  its 
design  gives  to  its  amplitude  and  height  their 
full  effect.  Four  lofty  half-domes  rich  with  gild 
ings,  and  resting  on  pilasters  of  polished  alabas 
ter,  carry  up  the  eye  to  a  loftier  and  ampler 
dome  in  the  midst,  where  rays  of  gold  stream 
from  a  central  point,  and  golden  stars  glitter  on  a 
blue  ground.  You  have  above  you  what  reminds 


76  TOMB   OF   MOHAMMED   ALL 

you  of  the  glory  and  breadth  of  the  firma 
ment  in  a  starlight  night.  The  light  from  with 
out  comes  through  windows  the  glass  of  which 
is  stained  with  the  richest  colors.  In  one  of  the 
corners  is  the  tomb  of  Mohammed  Ali,  sepa 
rated  from  the  rest  of  the  church  by  an  en 
closure,  within  which  a  group  of  Moslems  were 
seen  in  prayer.  The  tomb  itself  was  covered 
with  a  pile  of  Cashmere  shawls.  The  mosque  is 
not  yet  quite  finished,  and  artisans  are  still  at 
work  within  it. 

It  is  almost  the  first  business  of  travellers  in 
Egypt  to  visit  the  pyramids  of  Ghizeh,  and  we 
made  it  ours ;  but  do  not  suppose  that  I  am 
going  to  weary  you  with  a  description  of  them. 
"We  set  out  on  one  of  the  glorious  winter-days  of 
Egypt,  with  a  one-eyed  dragoman  at  the  head  of 
our  little  train,  brandishing  a  long  stick,  and 
attired  in  a  costume  which,  though  considerably 
the  worse  for  wear,  was  very  showy  at  a  little 
distance.  Three  brown  Arab  boys  in  blue  shirts, 
and  close-fitting  dirty  white  caps,  came  trotting 
and  screaming  after  us  to  urge  on  the  donkeys 
we  rode.  For  two  or  three  miles  we  kept  along 
the  Nile,  among  trees  and  gardens,  and  then 


BEDOUIN   ARABS.  77 

crossed  to  the  west  bank  in  a  boat  manned  by 
three  men,  one  of  whom,  a  fine-looking  Arab,  in 
a  single  garment  of  coarse  white  linen,  handled 
the  sail,  and  his  two  companions  the  oars.  As 
they  rowed,  one  sang,  "  God  is  great ;"  to  which 
the  other  responded,  "  God  give  me  strength." 
Arriving  on  the  other  side,  we  rode  through  a 
village,  where  the  dogs  barked  at  us  fiercely 
from  the  tops  of  the  mud-cottages,  and  the  dirty 
inhabitants,  squatting  by  the  way,  clamored  for 
bakhshish,  as  we  appeared,  the  children  running 
after  us.  We  passed  through  a  palm-grove 
where  turtle-doves  were  flying  about,  and  the 
hoopoe,  a  bird  of  beautifully-speckled  plumage, 
descended  in  search  of  its  food  close  to  our  path. 
Then  we  struck  out  upon  the  fields  where  the 
peasant  women  and  children  were  watching  their 
camels  and  buffaloes,  tethered  and  grazing 
among  the  clover  and  crisp  helva-grass.  We 
came  at  length  to  where  an  ancient  canal,  now  a 
broad  hollow  with  a  little  water  in  it,  wound 
along  not  far  from  the  western  edge  of  the  fertile 
country.  A  score  of  Arabs,  Bedouins  from  a 
neighboring  village,  came  about  us,  prepared  to 
carry  us  over  on  their  shoulders.  I  could  not 

7* 


78  PYRAMIDS  OF  GHIZEH. 

but  admire  the  fine  figures  of  these  men,  with 
their  muscular,  shapely  limbs,  uniting  strength 
with  agility,  and  their  striking  countenances. 
A  sculptor  could  not  find  a  better  model,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  for  the  perfection  of  the  human 
form.  Throwing  off  their  upper  garments,  and 
fastening  their  lower  ones  considerably  above 
the  waist,  two  of  these  strapping  fellows  lifted 
me  up  by  the  legs,  while  I  supported  myself  by 
the  hands  on  their  shoulders,  and  in  this  way 
waded  with  me  through  the  mud  and  water.  The 
others  were  carried  over  in  the  same  manner,  as 
well  as  a  French  gentleman  and  lady  who  had 
come  up  with  us  just  as  we  were  about  to  cross. 

We  were  soon  on  the  bare  sands,  ascending 
gradually  to  the  range  of  rocks  skirting  the 
desert,  on  the  brow  of  which  the  pyramids  are 
placed.  Of  course  we  climbed  to  the  top  of  the 
great  pyramid.  "  If  you  no  go  up,  what  for  you 
come  to  pyramid  ?"  asked  one  of  the  Arabs,  who 
spoke  a  little  English,  and  the  question  seeming 
to  me  a  very  pertinent  one.  From  the  summit 
of  this  vast  pile  of  hewn  stones,  which  would 
cover  all  Washington  Square  with  its  base,  we 
looked  over  the  green  Delta,  stretching  north, 


PURPOSE    OF   THE   PYRAMIDS. 


with  dark  groves  spotting  it  like  broad  shadows 
of  clouds.  To  the  west  of  us  was  the  Lybian  des 
ert,  a  waste  of  rocky  hill-tops  and  sandy  hollows ; 
to  the  north  rose  the  summits  of  pyramid  after 
pyramid,  and  eastward  lay  Cairo,  below  the  pin 
nacles  of  the  mosque  of  Mohammed  Ali,  beyond 
which  gleamed  the  white  edge  of  another  desert. 

As  I  stood  amidst  the  pyramids,  where,  all 
around,  the  skirts  of  the  desert  are  one  vast  cem 
etery,  full  of  tombs  and  mummy-pits,  and  re 
mains  of  pyramids  of  smaller  size,  I  could  not 
but  wonder  that  there  should  ever  have  arisen 
any  doubt  as  to  the  design  of  these  immense 
structures.  They  were  meant  as  monuments  of 
the  dead,  and,  in  my  opinion,  nothing  more. 
They  are  the  same  in  shape  as  some  of  the 
smaller  monuments,  and  no  more  exceed  them 
in  size  than  the  kings  to  whose  memory  they 
were  erected,  excelled  in  power  and  riches  the 
most  distinguished  of  their  subjects. 

A  day  or  two  afterward  we  visited  the  pyra 
mids  of  Sakkara,  lying  to  the  north  of  those  of 
Ghizeh.  "We  had  a  letter  to  M.  Mariette,  who  is 
here,  employed  by  the  French  government  in 
making  excavations  among  the  tombs  and  other 


80  PYRAMIDS   OF    SAKKARA. 

remains  of  the  ancient  cemeteiy  of  Memphis. 
He  received  us  very  politely,  and  ordered  the 
tomb  of  Apis  to  be  lighted  up  for  us.  We  de 
scended  into  the  rock  by  an  inclined  passage 
leading  from  a  portal  graven  with  numerous 
hieroglyphics.  A  gallery  of  about  four  hundred 
feet  in  length  lay  before  us,  regularly  arched 
overhead,  with  chambers,  at  intervals  on  each 
side,  the  floor  of  which  was  about  five  feet  below 
that  of  the  gallery.  Each  of  these  chambers 
contained  its  sarcophagus  of  black  or  gray  gran 
ite,  exquisitely  polished,  about  twelve  feet  in 
length,  ten  in  height,  and  seven  in  width.  They 
were  covered  with  hieroglyphic  characters.  On 
each  lay  a  massive  lid  of  the  same  material,  weigh 
ing  tons,  which,  centuries  since,  had  been  shoved 
a  little  aside  by  iron  levers,  the  marks  of  which 
are  yet  visible,  giving  us  an  opportunity  of  look 
ing  into  the  interior.  It  was  empty.  "  This," 
said  M.  Mariette,  "  was  done  by  the  Persians,  by 
order  of  their  king,  Cambyses,  to  show  his  con 
tempt  for  the  worship  of  the  Egyptians." 

One  of  the  sarcophagi  was  found  which  had 
escaped  the  general  desecration.  M.  Mariette 
had  ordered  it  to  be  opened,  and  its  contents 


THE    TEMPLE   OF   SERAPIS.  81 

were  lying  on  the  lid  when  I  saw  it.  They  were 
the  bones  of  the  sacred  bull  of  the  ancient  Egj-p- 
tians,  the  Apis,  for  wThich  this  tomb  was  destined. 
Every  one  of  these  enormous  chests  of  stone  had 
formerly  contained  similar  remains,  which,  thou 
sands  of  years  since,  had  been  dragged  forth 
and  scattered,  and  trampled  upon,  by  a  foreign 
soldiery  from  the  north. 

We  slept  that  night  in  a  chamber  of  M.  Mari- 
ette's  house,  a  building  which  he  said  had  cost 
him  eleven  francs.  Its  walls  were  made  of  the 
unburnt  brick,  part  of  the  structures  of  earlier 
ages,  which  his  workmen  had  dug  from  the 
sands,  and  it  was  roofed  over  with  logs  of  the 
palm-tree.  In  the  morning  we  looked  at  the  ex 
cavations  made  by  M.  Mariette  in  front  of  the 
tomb  of  Apis,  revealing  the  remains  of  an  exten 
sive  temple  of  white  marble,  which  he  has  iden 
tified  as  the  Egyptian  temple  of  Serapis.  Here 
are  pedestals  of  columns,  the  lower  part  of  walls, 
and  other  remains  of  a  sumptuous  edifice  long 
covered  up  in  sand.  Strabo  speaks  of  the  sand 
as  drifting  into  the  courts  of  this  temple  in  his 
time.  "  It  must  have  been  the  same  from  the 
first,"  said  M.  Mariette  ;  "  the  temple  itself  rests 
on  a  base  of  sand." 


82  CHARACTER   OF   THE  FELLAHS. 

The  excavations  had  been  suspended  for  a  day 
or  two  when  I  visited  Sakkara,  but  they  were 
soon  to  be  resumed.  Three  or  four  hundred 
workmen  are  generally  employed ;  and  objects 
of  ancient  workmanship  are  frequently  found,  of 
an  interesting  character,  which  are  immediately 
packed  up  and  sent  to  the  museums  of  Paris. 
"  These  men,"  said  M.  Marietta,  "  whom  I  have 
with  me,  are  the  fellahs,  the  peasantry  of  the 
neighborhood,  not  the  Bedouins,  for  it  is  not 
easy  to  make  the  Bedouin  engage  in  any  regular 
employment.  These  fellahs  work  hard,  receive 
small  wages,  live  on  little,  and  are  faithful,  good- 
tempered,  and  cheerful.  They  are  the  same 
patient  race  which  built  the  pyramids." 

Not  far  from  the  tomb  of  Apis  is  a  village  in 
habited  by  Bedouins.  "I  am  obliged,"  said 
M.  Mariette,  "  to  keep  watch  against  the  men  of 
that  tribe.  These  fellahs,  whom  you  heard  sing 
ing  all  last  night  to  keep  themselves  awake,  are 
my  watchmen.  About  eighteen  months  since  the 
Bedouins  attacked  the  place  in  the  night,  armed 
with  their  matchlocks,  a  clumsy  weapon,  with 
which  they  did  not  succeed  in  doing  any  harm. 
We  disarmed  them,  took  them  prisoners,  and 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   BEDOUINS.  88 

brought  them  before  the  authorities ;  but  they 
were  released  on  the  ground  that  I  had  no  right 
to  be  here,  and  that  they  committed  no  crime  in 
attempting  to  drive  me  off.  Since  that  time  an 
understanding  has  been  had  with  the  Egyptian 
government,  and  this  enterprise  is  now  under  its 
protection." 

"  These  Bedouins,"  pursued  M.  Mariette,  "  as 
well  as  those  fine-looking  fellows  whom  you  saw 
at  Ghizeh,  were  settled  in  these  villages  by 
Mehemet  Ali.  It  was  his  policy  to  allure  them 
to  settle  in  regular  communities,  and  to  quit 
their  roving  life.  He  assigned  them  these  lands 
which  they  now  cultivate,  and  exempted  them 
from  many  of  the  burdens  borne  by  the  fellahs, 
but  which  a  Bedouin  would  not  endure.  For 
merly  these  men  would  commit  robberies  and 
assassinations,  and  then  hide  themselves  in  the 
desert,  where  it  was  vain  to  pursue  them.  Now, 
if  any  of  them  are  guilty  of  crimes,  the  govern 
ment  has  them  in  its  power.  They  intermarry 
with  the  fellahs,  and  their  character  is  undergo 
ing  a  gradual  change." 

We  visited  at  Sakkara  one  of  the  repositories 
of  the  mummies  of  the  sacred  bird  Ibis.  It  was 


84  MUMMIES   OF   THE  BIRD   IBIS. 

a  long  passage  cut  in  the  rock  of  the  desert,  with 
branches  in  various  directions,  full  of  earthen 
jars,  about  a  foot  and  a  half  in  length,  in  which 
these  mummies  are  contained.  Every  traveller, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  brings  out  and  breaks  one 
of  these  jars,  and  we  followed  the  general  prac 
tice.  In  some  of  them  we  found  only  a  handful 
of  brown  dust  and  two  or  three  lumps  of  bitu 
men,  wrapped  in  folds  of  linen  cloth,  which  looked 
as  if  scorched  by  fire,  and  fell  to  pieces  on  being 
touched  ;  in  others  the  wrappings  were  tolerably 
white,  and  on  being  unrolled  showed  the  figure 
of  the  bird  tolerably  perfect,  with  all  its  bones, 
its  beak,  and  even  its  feathers  in  tolerable  preser 
vation.  The  ground  around  the  spot  was  strewn, 
to  a  considerable  distance,  with  fragments  of 
these  jars  and  pieces  of  mummy-cloths,  and 
among  them  were  here  and  there  portions  of  hu 
man  mummies,  a  skull,  a  thigh-bone,  blackened 
with  bitumen,  or  a  torn  part  of  the  cloth  in  which 
the  corpse  had  been  swathed.  Hollows  nearly 
filled  with  sand,  showed  where  recent  excava 
tions  in  search  of  tombs  and  mummy-pits  had 
been  made  ;  but  the  government,  I  hear,  has  pro 
hibited  all  such  undertakings  for  the  future. 


MEMPHIS.  85 

After  examining  a  toinb  in  the  precipice  over 
hanging  the  plain  of  the  Nile,  the  chambers  of 
which,  cut  in  the  living  rock,  are  graven  with  col 
ored  hieroglyphics,  we  returned  to  Cairo  by  way 
of  Memphis.  Descending  the  height,  we  followed 
a  high  causey,  built  of  the  fine  dark  mould  of  the 
region,  through  fields  green  with  crops,  to  the 
village  of  Mitrahenny.  It  stands  in  the  midst 
of  an  extensive  circle  of  mounds,  from  three  to 
thirty  feet  in  height,  which  are  all  that  remain 
of  the  renowned  metropolis  of  Egypt  in  the  time 
of  its  early  splendor.  These  mounds  appear  at 
first  to  be  of  the  dark  earth  which  forms  the  soil 
of  the  plain,  but  on  looking  more  nearly  you  per 
ceive  that  they  are  heaps  of  unburnt  brick,  among 
which  a  few  burnt  bricks  are  scattered.  A  vast 
grove  of  palms,  with  trenches  leading  to  their 
roots  for  the  purpose  of  irrigation,  overshadows 
them,  and  extends  to  a  considerable  distance  on 
every  side.  In  the  midst  is  a  shallow  pool  of 
water,  over  which  I  saw  the  kingfisher  hovering 
and  striking  his  prey,  and  beside  it  the  women 
of  the  village  were  filling  their  water-jars.  The 
branches  of  the  palms  were  rustling  pleasantly 
in  the  morning  breeze,  and  birds  of  various  kinds 
8 


80  EXCAVATIONS. 

were  flitting  about  with  little  fear  of  man,  for  the 
people  of  this  country  are  not  allowed  to  carry 
arms.  Among  them  was  the  beautiful  hoopoe, 
seeking  its  food  at  the  roots  of  trees,  sometimes 
erecting  its  brilliant  crest  into  a  semicircle,  and 
then  laying  it  backward  in  a  long  slender  pencil, 
so  as  to  seem  almost  another  bird. 

Beside  the  little  lake,  the  ancient  reservoir 
doubtless  of  the  city  of  Memphis,  stood  a  tent, 
the  tent  of  Hakakyin  Bey — I  hope  I  have  the 
right  orthography  of  his  name— an  Armenian, 
formerly  interpreter  to  Mohammed  Ali,  who  pos 
sesses  a  taste  for  antiquarian  researches.  He 
has  made  several  excavations  in  this  spot,  uncov 
ering  a  colossal  statue  of  granite  lying  on  its 
face,  and  several  smaller  figures,  one  or  two  of 
them  the  most  pleasing  samples  of  ancient  Egyp 
tian  statuary  to  be  seen  here,  and  that  is  not  say 
ing  much  in  their  praise.  They  stand  ranged  on 
each  side  of  the  entrance  to  the  tent,  into  which 
we  were  permitted  to  enter  and  take  our  lunch, 
the  proprietor  being  absent. 

Such  is  Memphis  now,  the  once  great  city  to 
which  Martial  attributes  the  building  of  the  pyra 
mids,  those  miracles  of  barbaric  art,  barbara  mi- 


THE   MOUNDS.  87 

racnla,  as  lie  calls  them.  Seen  from  its  site,  they 
appear  to  stand  around  it  in  a  semicircle,  from 
those  of  Dashour  on  the  south  to  those  of  Ghizeh 
on  the  north.  Its  builders  wrought  for  the  present 
age  in  a  way  they  little  dreamed  of.  I  could  not 
imagine  at  first  to  what  cause  it  was  owing  that 
these  mounds,  apparently  of  the  same  rich  mould 
which  composed  the  soil  of  the  plain,  were  wholly 
barren  of  herbage,  even  in  those  parts  which 
were  irrigated  by  the  trenches  conveying  water 
to  the  palms.  On  examining  their  surface,  I 
found  it  covered  in  many  parts  with  a  nitrous 
effervescence,  looking  at  a  little  distance  like 
hoar-frost.  The  soil  is  everywhere  highly  im 
pregnated  with  nitre — so  highly  as  to  prevent  the 
growth  of  plants,  except  where  it  is  washed  by 
the  annual  overflow  of  the  Nile.  How  they  con 
trive  to  make  the  palm  grow  in  places  where  no 
other  vegetable  will  take  root,  I  am  sure  I  can 
not  tell.  In  emerging  from  the  forest  of  these 
trees,  in  the  midst  of  which  lie  the  mounds  of 
Memphis,  we  come  to  a  small  circle  of  mounds 
almost  as  high,  through  which  our  road  lay.  It 
was  a  manufactory  of  saltpetre,  conducted  by  the 
government.  The  earth  which  forms  the  mounds 


88  THE   MOUNDS   OF   MEMPHIS. 

of  Memphis  is  brought  hither  in  panniers  slung 
on  the  backs  of  asses,  and  steeped  in  the  waters 
of  the  Nile ;  the  water  in  which  it  is  infused  is 
evaporated  in  broad,  shallow  vats,  and  the  resi 
due  is  crude  saltpetre.  In  one  sense,  therefore, 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Memphis  may  be  said 
to  have  built  for  posterity. 


VOYAGE   UP   THE   NILE.  89 


LETTEE  VII. 

Passage  in  a  steamer  up  the  Nile  to  Thebes  and  the  lower  cataract  of  the 
Nile.— Arrangements  for  the  voyage.— Beauty  of  the  weather.— Upper 
Egypt,  its  aspect. — Irrigation. — Villages. — Scarcity  of  fruit-trees. — 
Rocky  hills  overlooking  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Nile. — The  Tem 
ples  of  Thebes  and  Karnac.— A  French  excavator,  M.  Mourner.— 
Uncovering  of  old  temples. — Tyranny  of  the  Egyptian  authorities. — 
A  Latin  convent. — Copts. — Their  church. 

CAIRO,  EGYPT,  January  30th,  1853. 
WHEN  we  were  just  ready  to  set  out  for  Sak- 
kara,  we  learned  that  a  party  was  making  up  to 
visit  Thebes  and  Philse  in  a  government  steamer, 
which  was  to  go  and  return  in  seventeen  days. 
The  price  for  each  passenger  was  two  thousand 
eight  hundred  piastres,  or  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  of  our  money ;  and  as  soon  as  twelve 
passengers  could  be  found,  the  steamer  immedi 
ately  was  to  proceed  up  the  Nile.  We  had  already 
concluded  a  bargain  with  a  dragoman,  as  the 
men  who  engage  in  these  undertakings  are  called, 
to  convey  us  over  the  smaller  Arabian  desert  to 
Jerusalem,  and  thence  to  one  of  the  seaports  of 
Syria.  He  was  to  provide  us  with  the  means  of 
seeing  all  the  most  interesting  places  and  objects 

on  the  journey,  which  was  to  begin  on  the  13th 

8* 


90  A  NILE   STEAMER. 

of  January.  But  the  temptation  of  seeing  Uppei 
Egypt,  with  its  magnificent  monuments  of  a  re 
mote  antiquity,  in  less  than  three  weeks,  was  too 
strong  to  be  resisted.  We  therefore  added  our 
names  to  those  of  the  passengers  already  en 
gaged.  The  requisite  number  was  soon  com 
pleted.  We  found  means  to  induce  our  drago 
man  to  wait  for  our  return,  and  on  the  very  day 
when  we  should  have  started  with  him  for  Jeru 
salem,  we  left  Cairo  in  the  steamer  for  Essuan, 
just  below  the  first  cataract  of  the  Nile,  and 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  island  of  Philae. 

Hitherto  the  voyage  up  the  Nile  has  generally 
been  performed  in  boats  driven  by  sails.  These 
are  well  fitted  up  for  the  purpose  with  comforta 
ble  cabins,  but  with  calms  or  contrary  winds  the 
voyage  becomes  extremely  tedious,  and  its  dura 
tion  is  always  uncertain.  We  passed  these  boats 
frequently  on  the  river,  overtaking  or  meeting 
them,  and  sometimes  found  them  moored  to  the 
shore  where  wre  stopped.  There  were  four  or 
five  on  the  Nile  bearing  the  American  flag,  and 
as  in  our  party  of  fifteen  there  were  nine  Ameri 
cans  to  four  Englishmen  and  one  Frenchman,  we 
ran  up,  by  common  consent,  the  American  flag 


AN  ARAB  CREW.  91 

also.  Our  party  was  probably  the  first  which  had 
made  the  voyage  to  Upper  Egypt  with  a  satis 
factory  degree  of  comfort.  The  steamer  had  just 
been  fitted  up  expressly  for  these  voyages,  with 
a  separate  chamber  for  each  passenger,  which 
had  never  been  the  case  in  any  of  the  Nile  steam 
ers  before ;  the  furniture  was  new  and  perfectly 
clean;  our  larder  was  abundantly  stored,  though 
the  cookery  was  not  the  most  skilful ;  and  the 
waiters,  Greeks  and  Smyrniotes,  were  attentive 
and  obliging.  We  had  an  ill-looking  Bulgarian 
for  a  captain,  who  seemed,  however,  to  under 
stand  his  duty  pretty  well ;  a  Scotch  Highlander 
for  an  engineer,  and  a  crew  of  good-natured 
Arabs,  of  whom  it  generally  took  four  to  manage 
the  helm. 

We  left  Cairo  on  a  beautiful  evening,  performed 
our  voyage  to  the  lower  cataract  of  the  Nile  in 
sixteen  instead  of  seventeen  days— for  the  steam 
er  outstripped  the  estimates  which  had  been 
made  of  her  passage  from  place  to  place,  and 
here  we  are  again  at  Cairo.  We  could  not  have 
wished  for  finer  weather,  with  the  exception  of 
one  sultry  day,  in  which,  however,  the  steamer 
kept  on  her  passage.  The  temperature  was  that 


92  BEAUTY  OF  THE  WEATHER. 

of  an  English  summer ;  the  sky  always  clear,  the 
evenings  like  those  of  Italy  at  the  finest  season, 
a  blaze  of  orange-colored  light  brightening 
every  object  and  illuminating  every  recess ;  the 
nights  refreshing  and  without  mosquitoes,  which 
torment  us  so  much  at  Cairo ;  and  the  mornings 
cool — sometimes,  I  confess,  quite  unpleasantly  so 
for  those  who  had,  as  was  my  case,  their  cabins 
on  deck.  "We  took  our  meals  on  deck,  under  an 
awning,  and  before  breakfast  was  ready  the  tem 
perature  had  become  quite  genial,  so  quickly  did 
the  rays  of  the  sun  warm  that  transparent  atmos 
phere.  The  temper  of  our  party  was  as  pleasant 
and  genial  as  the  weather ;  I  doubt  whether  mere 
chance  ever  threw  together  a  better-natured  and 
more  obliging  set  of  men. 

Upper  Egypt  is  easily  described.  It  is  a  nar 
row  belt  of  verdure,  stretching  from  the  Delta 
far  south  into  the  desert.  A  river  of  turbid 
water  rushes  swiftly  through  its  whole  length,  on 
the  sand-banks  of  which  stalk  flocks  of  cormo 
rants  and  pelicans,  with  here  and  there  a  croco 
dile  basking  in  the  sun — a  timid  monster  which 
slides  into  the  water  at  the  first  notice  he  has  of 
the  approach  of  man.  On  each  shore,  within  a 


VILLAGES. 


short  distance  of  each  other,  wheels  moved  by 
buffaloes  and  donkeys,  or  buckets  suspended  to 
a  pole  which  turns  on  a  pivot,  and  lifted  by  peas 
ants  naked  to  the  waist,  shaded  from  the  sun  by 
a  screen  of  palm-leaves,  distribute  over  the  fields, 
at  all  seasons  except  that  of  the  annual  flood, 
the  waters  to  which  the  country  owes  its  three 
crops  a  year.  From  time  to  time,  a  town  or  vil 
lage,  built  of  unburnt  bricks,  formed  from  the 
mould  of  the  fields,  mixed  with  chopped  straw, 
rises  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  resounding  with 
the  shrill  cries  of  children.  The  poorer  and  la 
zier  portion  of  the  population  are  seen  basking 
and  smoking  by  the  walls  of  the  dwellings,  and 
overhead  are  aviaries  full  of  flocks  of  pigeons, 
for  the  convenience  of  which,  an  additional  story 
is  built  on  many  of  the  housetops.  The  villages 
are  always  near,  and  sometimes  within,  a  lofty 
grove  of  date-palms,  which  supplies  the  inhabit 
ants  with  food,  and  the  tending  of  which,  in 
conducting  the  water  to  their  roots,  forms  part 
of  their  occupation.  Of  other  trees  there  are 
few ;  here  and  there,  perhaps,  a  broad  sycamore, 
or  a  thick-leaved  cassia,  or  a  tamarind ;  but  in 
Upper  Egypt  trees  seem  never  to  be  planted  for 


94  THE   NEIGHBORING   DESERT. 

shade  ;  even  fruit-trees,  with  the  exception  of 
the  palm,  are  rare,  and  a  little  distance  south  of 
Cairo,  the  country  most  congenial  to  their  growth, 
the  orange-gardens  disappear,  and  the  banana  is 
never  seen. 

On  each  side  a  range  of  rocky  hills  without  a 
shrub  or  plant,  sometimes  approaching  close  to 
the  river,  and  sometimes  retreating  to  form  a 
plain  of  considerable  extent  on  its  border,  over 
looks  this  fertile  tract.  At  their  base  is  gener 
ally  a  hard,  gravelly  level,  or  a  sheet  of  loose 
sand,  a  little  elevated  above  the  meadows,  and 
always  bare  of  herbage,  but  at  times  they  flank 
the  river,  with  a  long  wall  of  sandstone  or  gran 
ite.  Old  sepulchres  yawn  in  their  sides,  and 
kites  and  eagles  sail  above  them.  One  morning 
on  my  excursion  to  Upper  Egypt,  I  crossed  the 
gravelly  waste  near  Beni  Hassan,  and  climbed 
what  seemed  to  be  the  highest  peak  in  the  range 
to  the  east  of  the  river.  All  before  me,  as  far  as 
the  sight  could  extend  to  the  eastward,  the  re 
gion  was  broken  into  rough  pinnacles  of  rock, 
with  narrow  valleys  and  passes  filled  with  loose 
sand. 

I  will  not  tire  you  with  describing  what  has 


KARNAC.  95 

been  so  often  described — the  ancient  tombs  and 
temples  of  Upper  Egypt.  The  grandest  of  them 
all  are  the  remains  of  Thebes,  consisting  of  the 
temples  at  Karnac  and  Luxor,  and  the  tombs  and 
colossal  statues  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
As  I  sat  among  the  forest  of  gigantic  columns  in 
the  great  court  of  the  temple  at  Karnac,  it  ap 
peared  to  me  that  after  such  a  sight  no  building- 
reared  by  human  hands  could  affect  me  with  a 
sense  of  sublimity.  Seen  through  the  vista  of 
columns  to  the  east  was  a  small  grove  of  palms 
close  to  the  ruins,  and  another  to  the  west ;  their 
tall  and  massive  trunks  looked  slender  and  low, 
compared  to  the  enormous  shafts  of  stone  around 
me.  I  looked  up  to  where  the  clouds,  floating 
slowly  over,  seemed  almost  to  touch  them  with 
their  skirts,  and  perceived  that  two  or  three  of 
them,  shaken  perhaps  by  an  earthquake  from 
their  upright  position,  stood  leaning  against  their 
fellows,  still  bearing  upon  their  capitals  portions 
of  the  enormous  architrave  which  belonged  to 
them.  Thus  they  have  stood,  and  thus  they 
doubtless  will  stand  for  ages ;  scarce  anything, 
but  another  earthquake,  can  bring  them  to  the 
ground.  The  spoilers  of  this  vast  temple,  extend- 


96  M.   MOUNIER. 

ing  over  miles  of  surface,  the  annihilators  of  its 
rows  of  sphinxes,  and  the  destroyers  of  its  mag 
nificent  colonnades,  seem  to  have  confined  their 
work  of  mischief  to  those  parts  of  it  less  mas 
sively  built,  and  to  have  shrunk  from  attempting 
to  overthrow  the  columns  of  the  great  court. 

At  Thebes  we  found  M.  Mounier,  a  French 
artist,  who  is  employed  by  the  Pacha  to  clear 
away  the  rubbish  from  the  temples  of  Upper 
Egypt.  I  was  walking  along  the  shore,  near  to 
his  boat,  with  two  gentlemen  of  our  party,  when 
he  perceived  us  from  the  cabin,  and  coming  out 
upon  the  deck,  politely  invited  us  to  enter.  Of 
course  we  did  not  refuse.  Many  of  the  finest  of 
the  ancient  temples  of  Egypt,  that  for  example 
at  Esneh,  are  half  buried  in  heaps  of  earth,  accu 
mulated  from  age  to  age  by  the  mud  cottages 
built  within  them  by  successive  generations  of 
the  peasantry.  The  larger  portion  of  the  mag 
nificent  temple  at  Esneh  is  actually  filled  by 
them  to  the  roof,  and  the  fellahs  are  now  build 
ing  on  the  roof  itself. 

"  My  business,"  said  M.  Mounier,  "  is  to  cause 
these  people  to  leave  the  temples,  and  then  to 
clear  them  entirely  of  rubbish,  both  within  and 


,       -       - 

-X 


MADAME   MOUXIER.  97 

without.  The  temple  at  Edfoo  and  that  at  Den- 
derah  were  partly  cleared,  by  order  of  Moham 
med  Ali,  a  few  years  since,  but  all  that  was  re 
moved  from  the  interior  was  heaped  about  the 
walls,  so  that  no  idea  could  be  formed  of  the 
effect  of  their  exterior." 

M.  Mounier  had  already  uncovered  and  exca 
vated  a  very  fine  portion  of  the  temple  of  Luxor, 
to  which  he  conducted  us.  He  informed  us  that 
he  generally  had  about  three  hundred  workmen 
employed.  "I  have,"  he  continued,  "the  au 
thority  of  the  government  to  make  requisitions 
on  each  of  the  villages  in  turn  for  a  certain  num 
ber  of  laborers,  who  are  bound  to  w7ork  a  certain 
number  of  days.  Such  objects  of  curiosity, 
works  of  art,  domestic  utensils,  etc.,  as  I  find  in 
these  excavations,  I  send  immediately  to  Cairo, 
where  the  Pasha  is  forming  a  museum.  As  fast 
as  the  different  temples  are  completely  uncovered, 
I  make  drawings  of  them,  which  are  hereafter  to 
be  engraved  and  published  in  a  volume." 

In  the  cabin  of  M.  Mounier's  boat  we  found 

Madame  Mounier,  an  elegant  French  lady,  who 

assists    her    husband   by  taking    photographic 

views  of  the  temples,  and  copying  them  on  draw- 

9 


98  GOVERNMENT   OPPRESSION. 

ing  paper,  a  pursuit  by  which  she  said  she  be 
guiled  the  years  of  exile  from  her  native  country. 

I  inquired  of  M.  Mounier  if  the  workmen  em 
ployed  by  him  on  the  ruins  were  paid.  He  re 
plied  that  they  were  not.  "  I  have  made  up  my 
mind,  however,"  he  added,  "  to  advise  the  Pasha 
to  give  them  wages.  The  expense  would  not  be 
great,  as  the  wages  of  a  laborer  are  but  thirty 
paras  a  clay,  and  they  would  work  much  more 
cheerfully  and  diligently  if  they  were  paid." 

Thirty  paras,  you  must  understand,  are  about 
four  cents  of  our  money.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
learn  hereafter  that  M.  Mounier  has  succeeded 
in  persuading  the  Egyptian  government  to  treat 
its  subjects  a  little  less  like  slaves.  Its  manner 
of  proceeding  is  extremely  summary.  As  I  have 
mentioned,  the  steamer  in  which  we  wrent  up  the 
Nile  belonged  to  the  government.  A  little  be 
fore  arriving  at  Siout,  our  captain  had  occasion 
for  a  pilot.  He  pounced  upon  a  boat  and  took 
out  three  persons,  whom  he  compelled  to  serve  in 
that  capacity  till  he  arrived  at  Siout,  where  he 
procured  from  the  local  authorities  an  order 
compelling  the  most  expert  of  them  to  act  as 
pilot  so  long  as  he  was  wanted.  At  Ghizeh, 


A  COPTIC    COMMUNITY.  99 

some  miles  further  south,  we  stopped  to  take  in 
coal.  Two  men  in  red  slippers,  with  long  staves, 
came  driving  on,  like  cattle,  the  barefooted  peas 
ants  who  were  to  weigh  the  coal  lying  in  woollen 
sacks  on  the  shore,  and  carry  it  on  their  shoul 
ders  to  our  steamer.  Our  captain  himself  per 
formed  the  functions  of  his  office  under  fear  of 
the  bastinado.  It  happened  that  Abbas  Pasha, 
the  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  was  himself  on  a  voyage 
up  the  Nile  in  a  steamer,  for  the  purpose  of  col 
lecting  tribute  at  the  time  of  an  excursion  to  Es- 
suan.  On  his  way  up  the  river,  he  found  a  gov 
ernment  steamer  aground,  an  accident  which 
often  happens  on  the  Nile,  and  which  had  hap 
pened  two  or  three  times  to  our  own  steamer. 
The  Pasha  ordered  the  captain  to  be  taken  out 
of  his  boat  and  soundly  bastinadoed. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  incidents  of  our 
voyage  was  a  visit  we  paid  to  the  Coptic  commu 
nity  of  Negadeh,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile, 
about  four  hundred  miles  above  Cairo.  We 
landed  at  their  little  town  before  breakfast,  and 
proceeded  to  the  Latin  convent,  the  superior  of 
which,  in  a  red  turban  and  Arab  dress,  received 
us  with  great  civility.  He  was  a  Neapolitan, 


100  A   COPTIC    SCHOOL. 

who  had  resided  in  the  country  seventeen  years. 
He  showed  us  the  church  of  his  convent,  one  of 
those  crazy  edifices,  with  rude  Moorish  columns, 
which  are  so  common  in  Egypt,  and  the  several 
parts  of  which  seem  with  difficulty  to  hang  to 
gether.  He  then  passed  us  over  to  several  re 
spectable  looking  men  in  white  turbans  and 
black  gowns,  who,  we  understood,  were  Coptic 
priests.  When  they  were  told  that  we  were 
Christians,  from  the  distant  land  of  America,  who 
had  called  to  pay  them  our  respects,  they  ex 
pressed  their  satisfaction  at  this  mark  of  regard, 
and  seemed  desirous  to  pay  us  every  possible 
attention.  They  took  us  to  their  place  of  wor 
ship,  through  an  open  court,  used  as  a  school,  in 
which  the  boys,  squatting  on  the  dusty  pave 
ment,  were  learning  to  read  and  write  from  a  les 
son  written  with  ink  in  Coptic  and  Arabic,  on  a 
leaden  tablet.  The  Copts  are  the  clerks  and 
scribes  of  Egypt.  The  church  was  of  the  same 
class  of  edifices  with  the  Latin  one.  As  we  en 
tered,  the  morning  service  was  near  its  close,  and 
the  priest,  in  reciting  its  last  words,  took  the 
hands  of  several  of  the  worshippers  between  his 
own.  Both  in  this  and  the  Latin  church  were 


THE   COPTIC   RACE.  101 

screens  of  lattice-work,  behind  which  the  female 
worshippers  concealed  themselves;  for  the  cus 
tom  of  seclusion  among  the  women  is  national,  and 
is  almost  as  strong  among  the  Copts  as  among 
the  Mussulmans.  From  behind  these  lattices  we 
could  observe  female  figures  silently  departing. 
The  priests  showed  us  their  books  in  the  Coptic 
language,  and  attended  us  to  our  steamer.  I  be 
lieve  the  boys  had  been  let  out  of  the  schools  on 
our  account,  for  of  a  sudden  the  beach  was 
thronged  with  a  great,  but  most  quiet  and  well- 
behaved  multitude,  as  if  the  whole  male  popula 
tion  of  the  place,  young  and  old,  had  been  sud 
denly  assembled  to  do  us  honor.  At  our  express 
desire,  three  of  the  priests  were  allowed  to  come 
onboard  and  look  at  the  steamer,  after  which  they 
took  their  leave  ;  we  moved  from  the  shore,  and 
left  the  crowd  gazing  upon  us  in  silence.  Dur 
ing  the  whole  of  our  visit,  not  a  single  person  of 
our  party  was  asked  for  money  :  it  was  the  only 
instance  of  this  sort  of  reserve  which  we  met 
with  in  all  Egypt. 

We  are  now  on  the  point  of  crossing  what  they 
call  here  the  Little  Arabian  Desert,  on  our  way 
to  Palestine. 

9* 


102  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  DESERT. 


LETTER  VIII. 

Journey  from  Cairo  to  Jerusalem  across  the  Little  Desert.— Gardens  en 
closed  by  the  prickly  pear.— Olive-trees.— Sycamore  of  the  Virgin.— 
The  Obelisk  of  Heliopolis.— Village  of  Khankia.— Lake  of  the  Pil 
grims. — Brief  twilight. — Journey  on  camels. — Hoopoes. — Entrance 
on  the  Desert. — Our  dragoman. — The  father  of  couriers. — Furniture 
of  our  caravan.— Ground  strewn  with  fragments  of  pottery.— An  Arab 
burial-ground. — Village  of  Belbays. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  Feb.  22d,  1853. 
OUE  arrangements  being  completed  for  the 
journey  from  Cairo  to  Jerusalem,  by  way  of  what 
is  here  called  the  Little  Desert  or  the  Shorter 
Desert,  our  dragoman  sent  forward  his  camels 
with  the  baggage  in  the  morning,  and  in  the 
afternoon  we  set  out  on  donkeys.  On  leaving 
the  town,  we  passed  among  gardens  fenced  by 
rows  of  the  prickly  pear,  which  here  grows  to  an 
enormous  size.  You  know  its  peculiar  mode  of 
growth — one  broad  oval  leaf,  bristling  with 
spines,  proceeding  from  another ;  but  as  the  plant 
becomes  old  the  lower  leaves  take  a  rounded 
form,  run  into  each  other,  and  form  large  crooked 
trunks  of  a  dark-brown  color.  They  make  a  hedge 
which  neither  man  nor  beast  can  penetrate.  Be 
yond  the  gardens  we  entered  a  country  of  green 


OLIVE-TREES   IN  EGYPT.  103 

fields,  where  the  road  was  planted  on  each  side 
with  the  sycamore,  or  Egyptian  fig,  the  acacia, 
and  the  tamarisk,  all  in  full  foliage.  Sometimes 
our  way  led  us  among  the  lofty  stems  of  a  palm- 
grove,  with  its  numerous  trenches,  dry  at  that 
season,  for  conducting  water  to  the  roots  of  the 
trees.  The  road  was  full  of  people — men  leading 
loaded  camels,  women  with  water-jars  on  their 
heads,  or  fagots  of  dry  branches,  and  people  of 
both  sexes  on  donkeys.  One  of  these,  kicking 
his  donkey's  sides  to  make  him  keep  pace  with  us, 
would  occasionally  join  our  party  and  hold  a  con 
versation  with  our  dragoman  and  his  companions. 
It  was  only  on  this  road  that  I  saw  the  olive- 
tree  growing  in  Egypt.  On  a  large  estate  be 
longing  to  some  distinguished  Egyptian,  who 
wears  the  title  of  Pasha,  and  whose  name  I  beg 
his  pardon  for  having  forgotten,  the  culture  of 
the  olive  has  been  introduced  or  perhaps  revived. 
I  have  never  seen  finer  orchards  of  the  tree  than 
those  which,  at  the  distance  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
miles  from  Cairo,  shaded  the  soil  to  a  great  ex 
tent,  on  both  sides  of  the  way ;  they  were  young, 
but  not  too  young  for  an  abundant  fruitage,  and 
were  growing  luxuriantly.  It  was  evident  that 


104  SYCAMORE  OF   THE  VIRGIN. 

they  were  well  watered,  for  in  two  or  three  places, 
where  irrigation  had  apparently  been  neglected, 
I  saw  some  plantations  of  the  olive  which  had 
not  a  very  thriving  appearance. 

Our  conductor  turned  aside  from  the  main 
road,  and  led  us  to  a  garden  on  the  same  estate, 
full  of  orange,  citron,  and  pomegranate  trees,  with 
a  few  roses  and  other  flowering  plants.  "  In  this 
garden,"  said  he,  "is  the  sycamore  tree  under 
which  the  Yirgin  rested  with  her  child,  in  her 
flight  to  Egypt.  It  is  much  visited  by  pilgrims, 
and  a  jar  of  sweet  water  is  kept  standing  by  it 
for  their  sake."  We  were  admitted  to  the  garden 
by  the  Arabs  who  tended  it,  and  saw  the  tree,  a 
fine  sample  of  the  old  sycamores  of  the  country, 
with  an  enormous  leaning  stem,  and  a  scanty 
circumference  of  boughs,  looking  as  if  it  had  sur 
vived  several  centuries.  By  its  side  was  a  large 
earthen  jar,  with  water  for  the  pilgrims.  It  is 
one  of  the  principal  works  of  Mussulman  piety 
and  charity  to  supply  the  traveller  with  water. 
Jars  of  water  are  kept  in  little  niches  at  the  tombs 
of  the  Santons,  and  charitable  people  when  they 
die,  instead  of  endowing  an  hospital,  leave  a  leg 
acy  to  set  up  a  fountain. 


OBELISK   OF    HELIOPOLIS.  105 

In  another  garden  we  stopped  to  see  the  obe 
lisk  of  Heliopolis,  a  beautiful  shaft  of  polished 
red  granite,  standing  upright  where  it  has  stood 
for  thousands  of  years,  while  the  temples  by 
which  it  was  surrounded  have  long  ago  disap 
peared.  Only  a  few  fragments  of  their  cornices 
and  columns  remain  to  attest  that  they  once  ex 
isted. 

Toward  sunset  we  overtook  our  camels,  and 
pitched  our  tent  just  beyond  the  village  of 
Khankia,  among  some  scattered  palms.  The 
spot  was  full  of  wells,  and  the  work  of  drawing 
water  for  the  thirsty  fields  was  carried  on  with 
great  activity;  the  sdkkia  or  wheel,  turned  by 
buffaloes,  was  creaking,  and  the  shadoof,  or  pole 
and  bucket,  was  going  up  and  down.  Near  us 
was  an  old  mosque,  apparently  just  ready  to  fall 
into  ruins,  as  is  the  case  with  all  the  mosques  in 
Egypt.  A  few  curious  villagers  gathered  around 
us  to  see  our  people  set  up  their  tents,  and  our 
cook  make  his  preparations  for  dinner.  We 
strolled  to  a  little  lake  near  the  village,  named 
Birlcet  el  Hoj,  or  Lake  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  is  on 
the  way  from  Cairo  to  Mecca,  and  is  probably  so 
called  because  the  pilgrims  here  lay  in  their  pro- 


106  AN  EGYPTIAN  SUNSET. 

vision  of  water  before  crossing  the  desert.  Yfe 
found  it  a  shallow  sheet  of  water,  with  a  gravelly 
shore,  where  camels  wrere  drinking,  and  women 
washing  their  feet  and  filling  their  water-jars. 
The  day  had  been  beautiful — a  genial  summer 
temperature,  the  sunshine  tempered  by  clouds — 
and  the  sun  now  went  down  in  a  glow  of  orange- 
colored  light.  A  short  twilight  succeeded — the 
twilight  is  always  short  in  Egypt — the  women 
hastened  away  from  the  lake,  the  sakltia  ceased 
to  creak,  the  shadoof  was  still,  and  darkness  was 
upon  us  before  we  returned  to  our  tent. 

Next  morning  we  sent  back  our  donkeys  to 
Cairo,  and  prepared  for  a  journey  on  the  backs 
of  camels.  The  villagers  were  again  on  the 
ground  to  see  us  strike  our  tents,  and  several 
hoopoes  came  down  from  the  palms,  and  ran 
about  gleaning  the  scattered  grains  left  where 
the  camels  had  been  fed.  This  beautiful  bird, 
unfortunately  for  itself,  is  a  game-bird,  and  our 
dragoman  shot  two  of  them.  The  camels  were 
kneeling  on  the  ground,  the  more  impatient  of 
them  having  their  fore-legs  tied  under  them,  to 
prevent  their  rising,  and  were  uttering  a  harsh, 
angry  bleat,  as  the  loads  were  put  on  their  backs. 


OUR  CARAVAN.  107 

i 

At  length  we  were  ready  ;  I  placed  myself  on  the 
back  of  the  camel  destined  for  me,  and  was 
nearly  thrown  over  his  back,  and  then  over  his 
head,  as  he  lifted  me  by  three  different  jerks  to 
the  height  of  nine  feet  in  the  air.  We  left  the 
village,  passing  by  the  Lake  of  the  Pilgrims,  and 
entered  the  desert,  which  here  was  a  vast  plain 
of  hard  ground,  strewn  with  pebbles. 

Our  caravan  consisted  of  thirteen  camels, 
tethered  to  each  other,  and  walking  in  a  row. 
By  the  side  of  one  of  them  trotted  a  young  don 
key,  and  on  the  back  of  another,  among  some 
baggage,  sat  a  monkey  from  Nubia,  not  yet 
quite  tamed,  and  making  a  fearful  grimace  every 
time  he  was  approached.  Four  Arabs  from  El 
Areesh,  a  little  town  in  the  desert,  on  the  sea 
shore,  walked  with  the  camels;  they  were  the 
owners  of  the  animals,  and  one  of  them  guided 
the  first  of  the  troop  by  a  halter. 

At  our  head,  armed  with  a  long  sabre  and 
carrying  a  rifle,  rode  Emanuel  Balthas,  our 
dragoman,  an  Athenian  by  birth,  speaking  the 
ancient  Greek  as  well  as  the  Eomaic,  fluent  in 
Italian,  Turkish  and  Arabic,  intelligible  in 
French,  and  in  a  fair  way  to  learn  English, 


108  OUR   DRAGOMAN. 

whicli  he  was  picking  up  very  fast  from  those 
with  whom  he  travelled.  If  any  of  my  country 
men  should  have  occasion  for  a  dragoman  in 
Syria  or  Egypt,  I  can  with  a  safe  conscience  refer 
them  to  Emanuel  Balthas,  a  little  man,  with  the 
manners  of  a  nobleman,  active,  prompt,  anxious 
to  satisfy  his  employers,  as  choleric  and  as  gen 
erous  as  a  prince,  a  little  too  much  given  to  flog 
ging  his  Arabs,  but  always  attaching  them  to  him 
by  the  liberality  with  which  he  treats  them. 
He  engaged,  for  a  Napoleon  a  day  from  each  of 
us,  to  provide  us  with  conveyance,  shelter,  beds, 
and  food,  in  our  journey  across  the  desert  and 
through  Syria,  paying  our  expenses  at  Jerusa 
lem,  Damascus,  and  the  other  places  we  might 
have  occasion  to  visit,  till  we  should  reach  Jaffa 
or  some  other  seaport  on  the  Mediterranean. 

The  rest  of  our  party  consisted  of  four  Ameri 
can  travellers,  myself  included ;  John  Muscat, 
our  courier,  the  father  of  couriers,  as  he  called 
himself,  and  the  most  honest  of  his  tribe,  a  na 
tive  of  the  little  island  of  Malta,  fertile  in  men, 
which  has  its  representatives  in  every  port  of  the 
Mediterranean,  from  Gibraltar  to  Scanderoon; 
Gianneco,  the  cousin  of  our  dragoman,  a  Smyr- 


TRAVELLING   FURNITURE.  100 

niote  Greek,  with  a  brow  like  that  of  the  bust  of 
Hippocrates ;  and  lastly,  Yincenzo,  our  cook,  a 
Roman,  whose  whole  soul  was  in  his  art,  who 
plucked  his  chickens  as  he  sat  on  his  camel,  and 
had  no  worldly  ambition  higher  than  that  of 
hearing  his  dinners  praised.  I  doubt  whether 
such  capital  dinners  as  he  gave  us  are  often  eaten 
in  the  desert.  Our  camels  carried  two  tents,  one 
for  the  travellers,  the  other  for  our  dragoman 
and  his  companions  ;  four  camp  bedsteads,  with 
mattresses,  pillows,  and  bedclothes ;  a  table  ;  four 
camp-stools ;  mats  and  carpets  for  the  floor  of 
our  tent ;  a  water-cask  ;  a  provision-chest,  with 
table-linen,  tin  plates,  and  knives  and  forks ; 
three  small  furnaces,  with  a  supply  of  charcoal 
and  kitchen  utensils ;  a  hen-coop,  crowded  with 
chickens,  and  a  small  crate  filled  with  oranges. 
Our  Arabs  had  their  blankets  on  their  camels, 
and  passed  the  night  with  them  in  the  open  air. 
I  have  mentioned  the  rifle  and  sabre  carried  by 
our  dragoman,  but  these  were  not  his  only  weap 
ons  ;  there  was,  besides,  a  pair  of  horse-pistols, 
ready  loaded,  and  the  father  of  the  couriers,  on 
the  morning  of  our  departure,  had  astonished  us 

by  making  his  appearance  equipped  with  a  sword 
10 


110  BIDING  ON  CAMEL-BACK. 

of  Persian  manufacture,  short  and  thick,  like 
himself,  which  he  now  wore,  and  was  ready  to 
employ,  as  he  assured  us,  against  the  brigands 
with  which  the  road  to  Syria  was  beset.  With 
such  ample  arrangements  for  our  comfort  and 
security,  we  entered  with  stout  hearts  upon  our 
journey  over  the  desert. 

We  dismounted  from  our  camels  at  half -past 
twelve,  to  take  our  lunch.  Mats  were  spread  for 
us  on  the  ground,  and  we  shaded  ourselves  from 
the  sun  by  umbrellas,  while  we  took  a  short  re 
past,  sitting  as  well  as  we  could  in  the  oriental 
manner,  or  reclining  on  the  ground.  My  camel 
was  a  vicious  animal,  bleating  horribly  whenever 
he  was  made  to  kneel  or  to  rise,  and  occasionally 
offering  to  bite.  I  declined  remounting  him 
again  for  the  day,  but  went  on  foot  till  we  halted 
for  the  night.  It  was  an  easy  matter  to  keep 
pace  with  the  camels ;  they  walk  at  the  rate  of 
about  three  miles  an  hour,  and  eight  hours,  or 
twenty-four  miles,  is  the  ordinary  day's  journey 
of  a  caravan  like  ours.  Our  way  was  on  the 
skirt  of  the  desert,  with  the  palm-trees  of  the 
cultivated  land  in  sight  on  one  hand,  and  the  hills 
of  the  desert  on  the  other.  All  day,  on  looking 


THE   CANAL   OF  ARSIS  OE.  Ill 

back,  the  rocky  heights  immediately  east  of  Cairo 
were  in  full  view,  with  the  mosque  of  Mohammed 
Ali  and  its  tall  minarets  gleaming  on  their  west 
ern  edge. 

At  every  step  we  set  our  feet  among  small 
fragments  of  pottery  thickly  strewn  among  the 
gravel — the  only  vestiges  of  the  millions  of  hu 
man  beings  by  whom  this  barren  waste  had  been 
trodden  since  Egypt  was  first  peopled. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  we  saw  the  glimmer 
of  water  to  the  northwest  of  us.  It  was  a  part 
of  the  ancient  canal  of  Arsinoe,  which  reached 
from  the  Nile  to  the  Ked  Sea.  Toward  sunset, 
a  village  of  dark-colored  mud  houses,  with  white 
minarets  of  stone  rising  over  them,  appeared  in 
sight,  surrounded  by  palms,  and  I  found  myself 
in  the  midst  of  an  Arab  burial-ground ;  for  the 
old  practice  of  burying  the  dead  in  the  desert  is 
still  common  throughout  Egypt.  They  were 
vaults  of  brick,  underground,  some  of  them  fallen 
in  ;  those  which  were  entire  were  each  surrounded 
by  a  narrow  piece  of  masonry,  about  six  feet  in 
height,  composed  of  bricks  or  stones  laid  in  a 
crumbling  kind  of  cement,  and  none  of  them  bore 
inscriptions.  Another  hour's  walk  through  loose 


112  BELBAYS. 

sand  brought  me  to  a  circle  of  mounds  of  dark 
mould,  wholly  bare  of  herbage,  among  which 
stands  the  little  village  of  Belbays,  on  the  site 
of  an  ancient  town.  "Within  this  circle,  under 
some  palm-trees,  we  set  up  our  tents.  A  caravan 
of  Egyptians  was  already  on  the  ground ;  they 
had  unloaded  their  camels,  spread  their  mats, 
and  disposing  their  bales  of  goods  around 
them,  were  preparing  to  pass  the  night  in  the 
open  air.  I  find  it  recorded  in  my  notes  that 
this  evening,  in  this  wretched  place,  Yincenzo 
gave  us  the  very  best  dinner  we  had  eaten  in 
Egypt. 


ARAB   WOMEN.  113 


LETTER  IX. 

Second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  days  of  our  journey.— A  visit  from 
two  Arab  women. — Coquetry  of  the  younger. — Horsemanship  of  the 
Arabs.— A  belt  of  cultivation  in  the  Desert.—  Rasscl  Wady.—  Flocks 
of  birds.— Irrigation.— Arabs  singing.— A  dragoman  flogs  an  Arab.— 
A  camel  runs  away.— A  mirage.— Barook.— Pilgrims  from  Mecca.— 
A  sirocco. — Dead  camels. — A  monkey  digging  sorrel. — Violence  of 
the  wind. — Our  tents  overturned  at  night. — Gatieh. — Personal  ap 
pearance  of  the  Arabs. — Vermin. , 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  Feb.  22d,  1853. 
OUR  tents  were  struck  at  sunrise,  and  we  break 
fasted  in  the  open  air,  the  wonder  of  several 
spectators  from  the  village,  who  came  to  see  the 
monkey  and  the  Franks.  As  they  approached  a 
little  too  near  the  provision  chest  and  other  goods 
of  the  caravan,  our  dragoman  drove  them  off 
with  a  fierce  shout,  and  a  flourish  of  his  long 
cowskin.  An  old  woman  and  a  young  one  came 
to  gather  the  camels'  dung,  which  is  used  here 
for  fuel,  and  the  remains  of  barley  and  chopped 
straw  with  which  the  camels  had  been  fed.  The 
old  woman  asked  alms ;  her  young  companion 
amused  us  by  an  exhibition  of  innocent  coquetry. 
On  her  tawny  but  plump  right  arm  she  wore  a 
bracelet  of  some  cheap  metal,  and  on  her  right 

hand  three  rings  of  the  same  material.     In  the 
10* 


114  ARAB   CAVALRY. 

intervals  of  her  occupation,  she  covered  the  lower 
part  of  her  face,  which  was  not  an  unpleasing 
one,  with  her  blue  cotton  mantle  ;  but  was  care 
ful  to  keep  that  brown  handsome  arm  with  its 
ornaments  in  full  sight,  resting  it  on  her  basket. 

In  the  mean  time,  a  muster  of  cavalry  was 
going  on  at  the  gate  of  a  large  enclosure  opposite 
our  camping-ground.  Now  and  then  a  horseman 
would  strike  his  spurs  into  the  side  of  the  ani 
mal  he  rode,  dash  forward  swiftly  for  a  few  rodst 
stop  suddenly,  wheel  and  dash  forward  again  as 
swiftly,  brandishing  his  carbine,  while  the  horse's 
niane  and  tail  streamed  in  the  air.  "  Those  sol 
diers,"  said  the  dragoman,  "  are  going  to  El 
Areesh  ;  their  business  is  to  keep  the  road  of  the 
desert  clear  of  robbers.  Three  hundred  of  them 
are  to  be  sent  forward  in  the  course  of  the  day." 
Several  small  parties  of  these  horsemen  left  the 
village  before  us,  and  when  we  at  length  mounted 
our  camels  and  entered  the  desert,  we  found  the 
road  full  of  them.  They  soon,  however,  left  us 
behind. 

I  had  a  better  camel  to-day  ;  an  exemplary  an 
imal  in  all  respects  save  one — he  was  not  satis 
fied  to  remain  long  in  a  kneeling  position,  and 


A   BELT   OF   CULTIVATION.  115 

was  apt  to  rise  before  he  was  bid.  The  motion 
of  the  camel,  tossing  its  rider  backward  and  for 
ward,  is  at  first  extremely  fatiguing ;  and  it  is 
customary  to  wear  a  belt,  by  which  the  mus 
cles  of  the  back  are  supported,  while  making 
these  journeys.  Our  party  had  all  provided 
themselves  with  these  belts ;  but  as  I  found  that 
I  could  avoid  the  fatigue  by  varying  my  position 
on  the  back  of  the  animal,  sitting  sometimes 
astride,  sometimes  with  both  legs  on  one  side 
and  sometimes  on  the  other,  and  occasionally  dis 
mounting  to  walk,  I  laid  my  belt  aside  after  the 
second  day. 

It  was  with  no  little  delight  that,  toward  the 
end  of  a  day's  journey  over  the  herbless  plain, 
we  found  ourselves  again  entering  among  green 
fields.  A  narrow  tract  of  cultivation  stretched 
far  into  the  desert,  a  long  cape  of  verdure  putting 
out  from  the  Delta,  and  we  were  crossing  it  at  a 
place  called  Rassel  Wady.  Here  were  trenches 
of  transparent  brackish  water,  rippled  by  the 
wind ;  marshy  spots  producing  a  luxuriant  crop 
of  weeds ;  cotton-fields  with  bolls  ready  to  be 
gathered,  and  a  few  trees.  The  reeds  and  trees 
were  bending  with  the  weight  of  hundreds  of 


116  BIRDS  IN   THE   DESERT. 

small  birds  perched  upon  them,  keeping  up  a 
chorus  of  twitterings ;  and  larger  game-birds 
were  hovering  about  in  great  numbers.  There 
are  two  reasons  why  birds  abound  in  Egypt :  in 
the  first  place,  the  people  are  not  allowed  to  own 
arms ;  and  secondly,  the  Mussulman  is  tender  of 
the  lives  of  animals,  never  taking  them  wantonly. 
Balthas  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  adding 
to  the  stores  of  his  larder,  and  getting  down  from 
his  camel,  began  a  war  upon  the  birds.  He 
shot  several  hoopoes  and  plovers,  a  pigeon,  and 
a  beautiful  black  and  white  bird — jetty  black, 
and  glistening  white — which  he  called  the  Idn- 
Tdnazo. 

Beside  our  way  stood  a  tower  of  stone,  one  of 
a  line  of  telegraphic  stations  established  by 
Mohammed  Ali,  between  Syria  and  Egypt,  but 
now  disused.  Near  it  were  the  ruins  of  a  village, 
roofless  walls  of  unburnt  brick,  among  which  our 
road  wound  for  awhile,  and  then  emerging, 
passed  by  orange-gardens  richly  loaded  with 
fruit.  We  were  soon  in  the  desert  again,  or 
rather  passing  between  barren  ground  on  one 
side,  and  luxuriant  barley-fields  on  the  other. 
These  fields  were  kept  fresh  by  little  rills  of 


ARAB   SINGING.  117 

water  raised  by  a  wheel  from  a  neighboring  well, 
one  of  which  had  overflowed  its  channel,  and 
softened  the  earth  for  a  little  way  in  our  path. 
One  of  our  loaded  camels  was  incautiously  al 
lowed  to  step  into  the  moistened  place ;  as  soon 
as  he  touched  it  with  his  feet,  he  slipped  and  fell 
heavily  to  the  ground.  The  Arabs  took  off  his 
load,  and  after  some  floundering  he  was  made  to 
rise. 

We  pitched  our  tents  on  the  clean  gravel,  and 
filled  our  cask  with  sweet  but  turbid  water  from 
a  canal  which  was  said  to  come  from  the  Nile. 
Our  Arabs  sang,  as  they  called  it,  all  night, 
making  a  monotonous  quavering  sound,  both 
guttural  and  nasal.  They  sang,  I  was  told  the 
next  morning,  to  keep  themselves  awake  while 
they  watched  the  camels  and  the  tents.  Small 
parties  of  cavalry  occasionally  passed  us  in  the 
night,  on  their  way  to  El  Areesh.  "  They  keep 
the  road  clear  of  robbers,"  said  our  courier,  "  and 
are  themselves  the  greatest  robbers  of  all." 

Next  morning  our  road  proceeded  for  several 
miles  along  the  northern  border  of  the  green 
tract  I  have  mentioned,  which  is  a  little  lower 
than  the  adjacent  desert  on  both  sides.  One  of 


118  A   CAMEL   RUNS  AWAY. 

our  camels  dropped  a  part  of  his  load,  which  had 
beed  badly  adjusted  by  the  Arabs.  Two  of  them 
immediately  ran  to  replace  it;  and  Balthas, 
jumping  to  the  ground,  flew  at  them  with  his 
cowskin,  with  which  he  dealt  them  several  vigor 
ous  blows.  Meantime  the  camel  shook  the  rest 
of  his  load  to  the  ground,  and  breaking  into  a 
gallop,  scoured  away  over  the  desert,  and  was 
soon  out  of  sight.  The  Arab  who  accompanied 
him,  a  well-limbed  man,  and  a  good  runner,  took 
after  him,  and  was  soon  out  of  sight  also.  The 
chests  and  bags  which  had  fallen  were  distribu 
ted  among  the  other  camels,  and  we  went  on,  turn 
ing  away  from  the  green  fields,  of  which  we  now 
took  our  last  look.  The  day  was  somewhat 
sultry ;  a  chain  of  arid  hills  rose  to  the  southeast, 
and  before  us,  from  time  to  time,  appeared  the 
illusion  so  common  in  the  desert,  of  lakes  or 
pools  of  water,  with  trees  on  their  borders  re 
flected  in  the  seeming  fluid,  where  there  was  only 
a  waste  of  gravel  and  stunted  shrubs.  After 
travelling  for  some  miles,  we  overtook  our  runa 
way  camel,  with  his  Arab,  and  compelled  him, 
notwithstanding  his  loud  cries  of  remonstrance, 
to  take  his  proper  load.  We  encamped  that 


BAROOK.  11£ 

night  in  the  desert,  at  some  distance  from  any 
human  habitation,  but  a  fire  which  we  saw  in  the 
evening,  at  the  distance  of  a  mile  or  two,  showed 
that  there  was  another  encampment  in  our  neigh 
borhood. 

An  hour's  journey  the  following  day  brought 
us  to  a  little  hollow,  in  which  were  some  remains 
of  dwellings,  a  well,  a  few  stumps  of  palms,  and 
several  young  trees  of  the  same  kind.  After  we 
had  filled  our  water-vessels,  I  walked  on,  over  a 
tract  of  fine  sand,  among  numerous  little  hillocks 
tufted  with  shrubs.  I  amused  myself  with  ob 
serving  the  tracks  of  large  and  small  birds,  of 
lizards  and  jackals,  on  the  smooth  surface.  We 
lunched  in  a  place  where  we  were  attacked  by  a 
swarm  of  sand-flies,  indicating  that  the  sands 
had  been  steeped  by  a  recent  rain.  The  shrubs 
grew  more  numerous  as  we  went  on,  and  finally 
we  halted  for  the  night  at  a  place  called  Barook 
by  the  Arabs,  who  have  a  name  for  every  place 
in  the  desert,  where  there  is  water,  or  a  palm-tree, 
or  an  eminence,  or  a  hollow.  At  Barook  there  is 
a  well  of  brackish  water,  and  we  saw  the  signs  of 
many  previous  encampments — heaps  of  ashes 
from  fires  made  with  shrubs  growing  around,  and 


120  PILGRIMS. 

innumerable  foot-prints  of  camels  and  horses. 
In  my  walk  this  day,  I  observed  several  small 
plants  in  flower,  feebly  rooted  in  the  sand,  and  I 
gathered  a  peculiar  species  of  sorrel,  with  thick, 
juicy,  brittle  leaves. 

The  next  day,  as  we  were  about  to  set  out  on 
our  journey,  two  men,  a  mulatto  and  a  young 
Arab,  made  their  appearance  and  lighted  a  fire 
near  us.  They  were  pilgrims,  they  said,  return 
ing  from  Mecca,  and  had  yet  two  days  to  walk 
before  reaching  their  homes.  They  had  eaten 
nothing,  they  told  us,  for  the  last  twenty-four 
hours.  Our  provisions  were  all  packed  up  and 
on  the  backs  of  camels,  but  we  found  half  a 
chicken  for  them  and  an  orange,  which  they 
seemed  to  accept  gladly.  One  of  our  Arabs  be 
came  offended  at  the  manner  in  which  his  camel 
was  loaded,  took  off  its  burden  and  rode  forward 
upon  the  animal  by  himself.  We  set  out  in  the 
midst  of  a  strong  wind,  which  had  begun  to  blow 
before  sunrise,  and  shifted  toward  the  south  as 
the  day  wore  on,  till  it  became  a  sirocco.  Our 
way  was  still  over  a  region  of  fine  sand,  spotted 
with  shrubs,  but  all  the  traces  of  living  things 
which  had  been  so  numerous  the  day  before  were 


A   SIKOCCO.  121 

effaced  by  the  wind.  We  lunched  at  a  place 
which  seemed  to  promise  a  shelter,  but  even  here 
the  gale  blew  the  sand  in  showers  over  our  plates. 
A  little  beyond  we  passed  a  grove  of  palms  in 
a  hollow,  on  which  the  sand-hills  were  gaining ; 
the  trees  on  its  western  side  were  buried  half 
way  to  their  summits.  Here  were  a  few  habita 
tions  of  Bedouin  Arabs,  made  of  the  long,  stiff 
leaves  of  the  palm  stuck  into  the  ground ;  and 
here  was  a  well  from  which  we  made  an  addition 
to  our  supply  of  water.  Further  on,  some  enor 
mous  drifts  of  sand,  loose,  almost  white,  and  bare 
of  vegetation,  approached  the  way.  A  camel 
lay  dead  in  our  path,  and  ravens  were  devouring 
it ;  they  rose  croaking  as  we  came  on,  and  flew 
aside.  A  mile  further  on  was  another  camel,  the 
bones  of  which  were  almost  picked  clean  by  the 
jackals  and  birds  of  prey.  The  wind  became 
hotter  and  drier  as  we  proceeded,  keeping  the 
sand  in  motion  like  snow,  though  it  did  not  often 
raise  it  as  high  as  our  faces  while  we  sat  on  our 
camels.  About  half-past  four  we  came  to  a  kind 
of  shallow  valley,  where  the  shrubs  and  other 
plants  of  the  desert  seemed  most  numerous,  and 
here,  as  the  camels  were  fatigued  with  their  day's 
11 


122  OUR  TENTS  OVERTURNED. 

march,  it  was  judged  best  to  pass  the  night. 
The  little  donkey,  too,  seemed  weary  with  walk 
ing  so  long  in  the  deep  sand,  and  the  monkey,  as 
soon  as  he  was  taken  down  from  his  perch,  began 
to  dig  up  the  juicy  sorrel,  which  he  ate  greedily. 
As  the  sun  was  going  down,  the  wind  abated 
somewhat  in  violence,  but  our  dragoman  and  his 
assistants  took  the  precaution  of  heaping  the 
sand  about  the  canvas  of  our  tents  at  its  lower 
edge,  by  way  of  confining  the  sheets  in  their 
places  and  keeping  out  the  air.  As  the  darkness 
came  on  the  gale  rose  again,  and  at  ten  o'clock 
blew  with  more  strength  than  ever.  We  were  all 
in  bed,  but  I  could  not  sleep,  and  lay  listening 
to  the  perpetual  flapping  of  our  canvas,  and  the 
sand  striking  against  it  in  showers.  At  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning  came  a  furious  gust,  and 
wrenched  up  the  stakes  of  our  tent  from  the 
sand,  dragging  its  poles  and  sheets  over  us, 
breaking  down  the  bedstead  on  which  I  lay,  over 
turning  one  or  two  of  the  others,  and  carrying 
away  with  the  tent  our  clothes,  watches,  and 
books.  I  felt  the  current  of  sand  sweeping  over 
me,  and  was  on  my  feet  in  an  instant,  shouting 
to  Balthas  and  his  assistants,  who  immediately 


CENTIPEDES.  123 

came  with  lanterns.  While  they  were  struggling 
to  raise  our  tent,  their  own  was  struck  by  a 
second  gust,  and  laid  even  with  the  ground. 
After  much  effort  the  two  tents  were  raised  again 
and  firmly  secured  with  stakes  and  ropes.  "We 
groped  in  the  sand  for  our  stray  watches,  pen 
knives,  and  other  articles  of  value,  which  we  re 
covered  with  little  difficulty.  My  bed  was  made 
up  again,  on  the  carpet  which  floored  our  tent, 
and  I  had  a  nap  of  about  three  hours  in  sheets 
powdered  with  sand.  The  accident  I  have  re 
lated  happened  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth  of 
February,  the  windiest  and  the  warmest  morning 
I  had  known  in  Egppt. 

As  we  were  taking  down  our  tents  the  next 
morning,  a  centipede  was  found  under  ours — a 
frightful  insect,  with  a  multitude  of  legs  and  feel 
ers,  which  has  the  reputation  of  being  venomous. 
With  considerable  difficulty,  our  dragoman  got  it 
into  a  bottle  of  spirits,  for  it  curled  itself  back 
from  the  mouth  of  the  bottle  again  and  again, 
and  made  a  thousand  efforts  to  escape  the  fate 
destined  for  it.  A  smaller  one  was  found  the 
evening  before,  running  on  the  bedstead  o±  one 
of  our  party. 


124  GATIEH. 

The  Arab  who  had  taken  away  his  camel  on 
the  morning  of  the  day  before,  had  returned  in 
the  evening,  and  assisted  in  raising  our  tents 
when  they  were  blown  down.  At  our  request  he 
was  spared  the  flogging  intended  for  him;  his 
camel  was  loaded  with  the  rest,  and  we  set  for 
ward,  intending  to  stop  at  Gatieh,  a  kind  of  oasis 
in  the  desert,  once  the  seat  of  a  considerable 
town,  but  now  abandoned  to  the  Bedouins.  After 
a  ride  of  two  hours  and  a  half,  we  saw  its  palms, 
towering  at  a  distance,  and  passing  to  it  over  a 
plain  thickly  covered  with  shrubs,  as  it  doubtless 
had  once  been  with  harvests,  we  set  up  our  tents, 
at  a  little  past  mid-day,  in  a  hollow  shaded  by  a 
fine  little  grove  of  palms.  The  wind,  though  it 
was  veering  to  a  northerly  direction,  and  had  be 
come  cooler,  still  blew  with  considerable  strength, 
and  we  made  our  tent-ropes  fast  to  the  trunks  of 
the  trees.  The  Arabs  of  the  place  came  about  us 
from  a  larger  grove  hard  by,  bringing  fresh 
eggs  and  baskets  for  sale — children  attracted  by 
our  monkey,  which,  tethered  to  a  stake,  was  dan- 
'  cing  backward  and  forward,  and  occasionally 
springing  with  his  fiercest  look  toward  the  stran 
gers  who  approached  too  near ;  and  men,  some 


PERSONS  OF   THE   BEDOUINS.  125 

of  whom  made  a  formidable  appearance,  with 
muskets  slung  on  their  shoulders.  They  com 
plained,  however,  of  the  want  of  ammunition, 
and  one  of  them  offered  to  shoot  a  wild  pig  for 
us,  if  we  would  furnish  him  with  powder.  The 
offer  was  declined,  but  to  let  the  Arabs  know 
that  we  had  powder  enough  for  our  own  pur 
poses,  a  gun  was  let  off  at  a  thievish-looking 
dog  which  came  skulking  about  our  encamp 
ment. 

I  could  not  but  admire  the  grand  looks  of 
these  brown  people  of  the  desert,  the  perfection 
of  their  forms,  combining  activity  and  strength, 
their  well-formed  features,  eyes  full  of  life,  and 
white,  even,  undecayed  teeth.  The  women  wore 
on  their  foreheads  and  cheeks,  a  row  of  little  cir 
cular  plates  of  brass  and  coins,  depending  from  a 
kind  of  cap,  and  the  corners  of  their  blue  cotton 
mantles  were  sometimes  neatly  fastened  together 
with  a  shell  of  the  size  of  a  pigeon's  egg.  I 
bought  of  them  a  little  basket,  handsomely 
wrought  of  a  kind  of  rush,  but  before  putting  it 
into  my  travelling  bag,  I  bethought  me  of  a  pas 
sage  in  Lane's  account  of  the  modern  Egyptians. 
"  Lice,"  says  that  minute  and  candid  describer, 
11* 


126  VERMIN. 

"with  the  most  scrupulous  cleanliness,  are  not 
always  to  be  avoided."  I  struck  the  basket 
lightly  on  a  table,  to  see  what  might  fall  out  of 
it,  when  one  of  the  crawling  nuisances  made  its 
appearance.  I  gave  a  smarter  blow ;  two  or 
three  more  followed,  and  I  tossed  the  basket 
from  me  into  a  thicket  of  young  palms. 


WOMEN  AT   THE  MILL.  127 


LETTER  X. 

Seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  days  of  our  journey. — Bedouin  huts. — Women 
at  the  hand-mills.— A  salt-plain.— Ruins  of  a  tower.— A  well  in  the 
Desert.— Brackish  water.— Arabs  amusing  themselves  with  our  mon 
key.— Flocks  of  goats  and  sheep. — Importunity  of  the  flies. — We 
meet  a  merchants'  caravan. — Mosquitoes. — Animal  life  in  the 
Desert. — Tracks  of  jackals  and  gazelles. — Sight  of  the  Mediterra 
nean.— Shrubs  of  the  Desert.— Minute  flowers.— Herd  of  camels  feed 
ing.— Pools  of  water  in  the  salt-plains.— Springs  of  mineral  oil.— Cry 
of  the  jackal. — Town  of  El  Areesh. — Plantations  of  young  palms. — 
Sana-hills  and  drifts.— Fruit-trees. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  February  22d,  1853. 
WE  went  to  look  at  the  habitations  of  the 
Bedouins  in  a  larger  grove  near  us ;  they  were 
huts  made  of  the  leaves  of  the  date-palm,  within 
little  enclosures,  formed  by  setting  these  leaves 
upright  in  the  ground.  "We  looked  into  one  or 
two  of  these  enclosures,  where  hand-mills  were 
humming,  and  saw  the  women  grinding  millet. 
The  quern  they  used  was  composed  of  two  circu 
lar  stones,  with  an  iron  handle  on  one  side  of  the 
upper  stone,  and  a  raised  border  of  dry  mud  and 
chopped  straw  on  the  lower,  to  prevent  the  escape 
of  the  meal.  There  were  none  but  women  and 
children  about  the  dwellings.  An  old  woman, 
tall,  gaunt,  and  shrivelled,  came  up  to  us  scowl- 


128  TOMBS   OF   SANTONS. 

ing,  and  accosted  us  in  harsh,  sharp  tones,  point 
ing  in  the  direction  of  our  encampment,  and 
evidently  ordering  us  away.  A  short  old  woman 
enforced  the  command  in  a  milder  voice,  with 
the  same  gesture  ;  so  we  bowed  to  the  two  ladies, 
and  retired. 

Close  to  this  grove  I  saw  the  first  instance 
of  what  travellers  in  the  desert  call  a  salt-plain. 
It  was  perfectly  level,  with  a  smooth,  hard  sur 
face,  bare  of  shrubs,  except  in  a  few  hillocks,  and 
wherever  it  was  fully  dry,  white  with  a  thin 
crust  of  salt.  At  the  end  next  to  the  grove  was 
a  shallow  pool  of  crystalline  water,  intensely  salt, 
and  near  it  several  salt-wells,  evidently  deepened 
by  human  hands,  full  to  the  surface.  We  crossed 
the  grove  to  the  east  side,  where  are  the  remains 
of  the  town  destroyed  by  the  French  in  their  in 
vasion  of  Egypt,  under  Bonaparte.  They  consist 
of  mounds  of  earth,  fragments  of  brick  walls,  and 
the  tombs  of  two  Santons — little  Moslem  chapels, 
with  whitewashed  domes.  Not  far  from  one  of 
them  grew  an  enormous  tamarisk,  with  a  thick 
head  of  boughs  and  foliage.  Some  of  the  richer 
portions  of  the  ground  were  formed  into  little 
enclosures,  with  palm-branches  set  in  the  centre, 


BRACKISH  WATER.  129 

where  the  Bedouins  had  cultivated  their  millet 
last  year,  and  the  rank  weeds  had  just  been 
plucked  up  to  make  room  for  another  crop. 
Another  grove  of  palms  stood  to  the  east  of  the 
ruins,  and  here  in  a  little  green  hollow,  where 
asses  were  feeding,  were  the  remains  of  a  higher 
antiquity — portions  of  a  marble  column  or  two, 
which  had  belonged  to  some  temple  of  ancient 
Egyptian  or  Greek  architecture. 

In  the  afternoon  our  people  repaired  such  of 
our  furniture  as  had  been  broken  by  the  accident 
of  the  night,  and  filled  our  water-cask  from  a 
broad,  deep  well  lying  in  a  hollow,  to  which  we 
saw  the  young  Bedouin  women  going  along  a 
well-beaten  path,  with  jars  on  their  heads.  It 
was  dug  and  lined  with  stone,  by  Mohammed 
AH,  while  he  was  master  of  Syria,  and  provided 
with  a  spacious  watering-trough  of  brick,  covered 
with  cement,  for  the  camels  of  his  military  cara 
vans.  The  water  was  brackish  and  unpalatable, 
but  it  was  the  best  that  could  be  had.  "We 
mounted  our  camels  the  next  morning,  amidst  a 
throng  of  male  and  female  Arabs,  old  and  young, 
some  diverting  themselves  with  the  monkey,  and 
others  clamoring  for  bakhshish.  They  pressed 


130  CLAMORS  FOR  BAKHSHISH. 

so  near  while  the  camels  were  loading,  that  our 
dragoman  thought  proper  to  flourish  his  cowskin 
over  their  heads.  They  scampered  away  to  a 
little  distance,  laughing,  and  came  back  almost 
immediately.  The  clamors  for  bakhshish  became 
louder  as  we  began  to  move  off,  men  and  women 
lifted  up  their  ragged  children,  and  boys  and 
girls  held  out  their  hands  to  us  till  we  were  fairly 
on  our  march. 

We  passed  a  shepherd  of  Gatieh  driving  a 
flock  of  about  fifty  sheep  and  goats  toward  a 
small  palm-grove  standing  by  itself,  around 
which  the  shrubs  grew  more  luxuriantly  than 
elsewhere.  The  sheep  were  black,  with  coarse 
long  wool,  from  which  the  Bedouins  weave  their 
cloaks  and  the  sheets  for  their  tents.  Farther 
on  we  entered  a  hollow  formed  by  heaps  of  sand, 
where  were  many  shrubs  and  sometimes  a  little 
water.  A  swarm  of  flies  came  buzzing  about  us, 
insisting  most  perseveringly  upon  establishing 
themselves  at  the  corners  of  our  eyes.  Diseased 
eyes  are  common  among  people  of  the  poorer 
class  in  Egypt,  and  I  never  saw  any  effort  made 
to  drive  away  the  flies  that  settle  upon  them. 
Children  with  a  circle  of  flies  around  each  eye 


A  MERCHANTS'  CARAVAN.  131 

are  among  the  first  things  of  which  the  traveller 
takes  notice,  and  the  grown-up  Egyptian,  accus 
tomed  to  them  by  long  habit,  never  thinks  of 
brushing  them  off.  It  seems  to  me  possible  that 
the  contagion  of  the  ophthalmia,  so  prevalent  in 
that  country,  may  be  propagated  in  this  way. 

Several  camels  appeared  in  sight.  "  It  is  a 
caravan,"  said  one  of  our  party,  and  so  it  proved. 
To  meet  a  caravan  in  the  desert,  is  an  occasion 
of  as  much  interest  as  to  speak  a  vessel  in  a 
voyage  from  America  to  Europe.  A  train  of  ten 
camels  was  coming  toward  us  in  our  path, 
loaded  with  large  bales  wrapped  in  coarse  dark- 
brown  woollen  cloth,  and  bound  with  strong  cords. 
On  one  of  the  camels  sat  the  principal  of  the 
caravan,  in  his  turban  and  gown,  with  a  long 
gray  beard  and  a  long  pipe,  and  a  brace  of  pis 
tols  in  his  girdle.  With  him  were  seven  other 
persons,  some  of  whom  were  armed,  three  on  the 
camels  and  four  walking.  Our  dragoman 
stopped  and  conferred  with  the  principal  for  a 
moment.  "It  is  a  merchants'  caravan,"  said  he, 
when  we  resumed  our  journey.  "  They  are  from 
Gaza,  and  are  conveying  silks  and  other  merchan 
dise  of  Syria  to  Cairo." 


132  ANIMAL   LIFE   OF   THE   DESERT. 

We  did  not  think  of  being  exposed  to  the  per 
secutions  of  the  mosquitoes  in  this  arid  region, 
but  this  day,  as  we  were  taking  our  lunch  near  a 
hollow  where  the  sand  had  a  moist  appearance, 
they  came  about  us,  hungry  and  sharp-bitten, 
and  with  them  a  cloud  of  midges,  or  sand-flies, 
extremely  troublesome.  There  were  other  living 
things  of  the  desert  with  which  we  had  now  be 
come  familiar — sand- colored  lizards,  one  kind 
slender  and  swift,  which  often  shot  across  our 
path  ;  another,  clumsily  shaped  and  slow,  scarcely 
able  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  our  camels  ;  moths 
fluttering  about  the  flowers  of  the  desert,  and 
here  and  there  a  butterfly ;  snails  clinging  to 
every  shrub,  and  the  surface  for  several  feet 
around  strewn  with  their  white  shells,  now 
empty  ;  land-tortoises  creeping  beside  the  way  ; 
sluggish  chameleons,  of  which  we  took  several ; 
black-beetles,  rolling  along  fresh  balls  of  camel's 
dung ;  and  snakes,  of  which  we  killed  a  small, 
spotted  one,  said  by  our  Arabs  to  be  venomous. 
Now  and  then  a  heron  would  rise  from  a  pool  of 
brackish  water,  where  he  sought  his  food,  and 
ravens,  on  their  glistening  black  wings,  were  al 
ways  hovering  near  us. 


SKELETONS   OF   CAMELS.  133 

Close  to  our  path  were  the  burrows  of   the 
jackal  in  the  hillocks,  and  the  marks  of  their  feet 

in  the  sand,  as  well  as  those  of  the  jerboa,  or 

• 

leaping  rat,  which  has  numerous  holes  all  over 
the  desert.  Less  frequently  seen  was  the  track 
of  the  gazelle,  a  delicate  triangular  foot-print. 
The  skeletons  of  camels  were  scattered  all  along 
the  way,  where  they  had  fallen  and  perished,  for 
when  the  camel  gives  out  under  his  load,  his 
owner  knows  that  his  end  is  come,  and  leaves 
him  to  die.  In  a  night  or  two,  nothing  is  left  of 
him  but  the  bones. 

It  was  a  fine,  cool  day,  with  a  bracing  north 
westerly  wind.  The  sky,  which  during  the  si 
rocco  that  overturned  our  tent  had  been  filled 
with  a  thick,  white  haze,  from  the  fine  particles 
of  sand,  blown  up  and  suspended  by  the  force 
of  the  wind,  had  become  perfectly  transparent, 
and  the  currents  of  air  passing  through  it  came 
to  us  directly  from  the  Mediterranean.  In  as 
cending  a  bank,  we  had  the  sea  before  us — the 
solitary  sea — murmuring  along  a  vast  extent  of 
uninhabited  shore.  That  night  we  pitched  our 
tent  in  a  wide  plain,  with  a  steep,  low  bank  on 
the  south,  beside  which  the  rain-water  gathers  in 
12 


134  MOSQUITOES. 

the  winter,  and  forms  a  kind  of  marsh.  The 
mosquitoes  came  swarming  into  our  tent,  and 
unlike  any  of  their  tribe  we  had  seen  before, 
plunged  into  the  flame  of  our  candles.  We 
made  the  tent-door  fast,  and  in  a  short  time  the 
greater  part  of  them  had  singed  their  wings,  and 
wrere  heaped  about  the  foot  of  the  candles,  so 
that  we  were  little  disturbed  by  them  during 
the  night. 

The  morning  of  the  7th  of  February  was  chilly 
with  the  air  from  the  sea,  and  we  were  later  than 
usual  in  leaving  our  encampment.  A  journey  of 
an  hour  and  a  half  over  heavy  sand  brought  us 
to  another  of  the  salt-plains  I  have  mentioned, 
perfectly  level,  hard  underfoot,  with  large  patches 
of  a  bare  smooth  surface.  In  other  places  it 
was  covered  with  a  growth  of  bushes.  Beyond, 
we  entered  upon  a  winding  hollow,  looking  al 
most  like  a  regular  highway,  with  many  shrubs 
on  the  left  hand,  from  which  rose  myriads  of  mos 
quitoes  and  midges,  bred  by  the  recent  rains.  Of 
the  shrubs  of  the  desert  nearly  all  are  ever 
greens  ;  some  are  thorny,  but  the  greater  num 
ber  are  of  a  jointed  growth,  somewhat  like  the 
rush,  in  the  younger  or  greener  stems  of  which 


PLANTS  OF   THE  DESERT.  135 

the  moisture  imbibed  from  the  soil  during  win 
ter  is  secreted  and  preserved  in  store  for  the  dry 
season,  supplying  a  juicy  pasturage  for  the  cam 
els.  Among  these  shrubs  the  retem,  or  broom  of 
the  desert,  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  as  well 
as  the  most  beautiful,  bearing  a  profusion  of 
white  flowers  veined  with  purple.  The  shrubs 
send  their  roots  far  into  the  loose  soil  in  search 
of  moisture,  and  the  sand  being  heaped  about 
them  by  the  winds,  they  form  hillocks,  held  in 
shape  by  a  net-work  of  roots,  in  which  the  jackal 
and  jerboa  have  their  habitations.  The  ground 
in  many  places  at  this  season  was  starred  with  a 
multitude  of  little  flowers — a  small  pink  phlox,  a 
plant  of  the  geranium  family,  with  a  purple 
bloom  ;  another  of  the  mustard  family,  of  a  deli 
cate  white ;  and  several  compound  flowers,  both 
white  and  yellow,  some  of  them  fragrant,  all 
dwarfed  by  the  meagre  soil,  but  making  the  banks 
gay  under  the  shrubs.  The  scarlet  poppy  showed 
itself  to-day,  in  little  groups  on  a  declivity  beside 
our  path. 

In  our  journey  this  morning  several  camels  ap 
peared  in  sight,  which  at  first  we  thought  to  be 
a  caravan.  As  we  came  nearer,  camel  after 


136  SALT-PLAINS. 

camel  was  seen,  a  numerous  troop,  scattered  over 
a  considerable  space,  browsing  among  the  bushes 
and  herbage.  They  were  the  property  of  the 
Bedouins,  feeding  in  the  broad  pasture  of  their 
owners,  the  desert.  Further  on  we  descended 
into  an  oval  salt-plain  lying  among  drifts  of  sand, 
with  a  surface  as  even  as  a  mirror,  and  wholly 
bare. of  vegetation  except  at  the  edges  to  the 
right  and  left  of  our  way.  A  winding  path  among 
sand-hills  led  us  from  this  to  another,  and  in 
this  manner  we  traversed,  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  four  salt-plains,  one  of  which  in  the  direc 
tion  we  were  travelling,  we  computed  to  be  at 
least  a  mile  and  a  half  across,  and  in  two  of 
wrhich  were  shallow  pools  of  water,  intensely  salt, 
clear  and  colorless,  and  sparkling  as  they  were 
rippled  by  the  wind.  On  coming  to  these  plains 
we  immediately  dismounted  and  walked ;  it  was 
a  luxury,  after  riding  through  drifts  of  sand,  to 
tread  a  surface  so  firm  and  even.  We  followed  a 
path  made  by  the  broad  and  heavy  foot-prints  of 
the  camel,  but  this  was  crossed  by  the  tracks  of 
the  gazelle  and  the  jackal  in  all  directions. 

On    climbing    out    of    these    plains   we    had 
glimpses  of  the  Mediterranean  to  the  north  of  us, 


MINERALS   OF   THE   MOUNTAINS.  137 

and  salt-pools  in  the  hollows  between  us  and  the 
sea.  To  the  southeast  rose  the  varied  peaks  of 
a  range  of  mountains  lying  along  the  shore  of 
the  Eed  Sea.  When  I  was  in  Upper  Egypt,  I  fell 
in  with  an  Italian  who  was  employed  to  obtain 
sulphur  from  a  mine  among  these  mountains. 
"  They  are  incredibly  rich,"  said  he,  "  in  beds  of 
ore  of  various  metals  and  other  mineral  produc 
tions  ;  but  these  cannot  be  worked  for  want  of 
fuel.  Egypt  has  no  mines  of  coal;  all  that  is 
used  in  her  steamers  and  her  manufactures, 
is  brought  from  England.  She  has  springs  of 
mineral  oil,  the  indication  of  beds  of  coal,  and 
wherever  they  are  to  be  found,  the  government 
has  made  excavations  to  a  great  depth,  and  at 
great  cost,  but  without  success.  An  Arab  in 
wandering  among  the  mountains  near  the  Ked 
Sea,  not  long  since,  found  a  little  pool  of  quick 
silver,  where  it  had  flowed  from  the  rocks.  He 
attempted  to  scoop  it  up  with  his  hands,  but  it 
slid  through  his  fingers ;  he  then  drew  it  up  into 
his  mouth,  filled  with  it  the  leathern  bottle  in 
which  he  carried  water,  and  brought  it  home. 
He  was  taken  ill  immediately  afterward  and  died, 
probably  from  the  effect  of  the  quicksilver  he 
12* 


138  CRY  OF  THE   JACKAL. 

had  swallowed,  so  that  the*  spot  where  he  found 
it  is  still  unknown,  though  diligent  search  has 
been  made  for  it." 

We  stopped  for  the  night  as  usual,  in  a  hollow, 
where  we  might  be  sheltered  from  the  wind,  and 
toward  morning  I  heard  the  cry  of  the  jackals  for 
the  first  time,  though  for  several  nights  they  had 
been  our  neighbors.  They  were  answered  by 
our  donkey  with  a  gallant  bray,  after  which  I 
heard  them  no  more.  This  was  succeeded,  as 
the  day  dawned,  by  a  more  welcome  song,  the 
cheerful  twittering  of  birds  about  our  tent.  The 
morning  was  clear  and  cold ;  the  weak  herbs  of 
the  desert  were  flattened  to  the  earth  beneath  a 
load  of  dew ;  and  as  we  were  taking  our  breakfast 
in  the  open  air  at  sunrise,  a  troop  of  small  birds, 
apparently  of  the  sparrow  family,  were  busy 
about  us,  gathering  their  early  meal  on  our 
camping-ground. 

This  day,  the  8th  of  February,  was  to  bring 
us  to  the  lonely  little  town  of  El  Areesh,  on  the 
shore  of  the  sea.  As  we  approached  it,  we  ob 
served  that  our  path  became  more  like  a  beaten 
highway,  and  the  region  better  suited  to  pastur 
age.  We  passed  a  large  herd  of  young  camels 


PASTURAGE   OF   THE   DESERT.  139 

belonging  to  the  people  of  El  Areesh,  feeding 
under  a  steep  bank,  at  the  foot  of  which  the 
shrubs  were  more  numerous  and  the  herbage 
greener  than  elsewhere.  We  lunched  in  a  little 
salt-plain,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  the  de 
clivities  seemed  on  flame  with  scarlet  poppies, 
and  a  liliaceous  flower  on  a  long  stalk  made  its 
appearance  among  the  shrubs.  "Within  about 
three  miles  of  El  Areesh,  we  heard  a  chorus  of 
shrill  cries,  and  saw  grazing  in  a  deep  circular 
basin  of  a  few  rods  over,  covered  at  the  bottom 
and  sides  with  luxuriant  herbage  of  the  liveliest 
green,  a  dozen  or  more  camels,  wearing  the  rude 
wooden  frames  which  serve  as  saddles,  and 
tended  by  boys.  We  now  overtook  women  driv 
ing  home  donkeys  loaded  with  brushwood  gath 
ered  in  the  desert,  and  camels  almost  hidden 
under  enormous  piles  of  coarse  hay,  made  of  a 
grass  which  grows  in  large  solitary  tufts.  Here 
and  there  stood  a  cluster  of  palms  in  a  hollow, 
and  in  some  places  little  plantations  of  the 
young  tree  were  formed,  with  circular  depres 
sions  about  the  stem,  to  receive  the  water  neces 
sary  to  keep  them  from  perishing. 

To  the  left  of  our  path,  on  the  side  next  to  the 


140  ASPECT  OF  THE   DESERT. 

sea,  were  banks  of  freshly  drifted  sand,  with 
towering  crests,  and  among  these  we  at  length 
entered  by  a  deep  hollow  path,  within  which  the 
rays  of  the  sun  beat  upon  us  with  sickening  force. 
Climbing  out  of  it  by  a  steep  •  ascent,  we  came 
upon  a  dreary  waste  utterly  without  vegetation, 
where  the  arid  wind  sifted  the  sand  and  piled  it 
in  broad  hills  all  around  us.  In  all  my  journey  I 
had  seen  no  -aspect  of  nature  so  melancholy  as 
that  on  which  I  now  looked.  With  every  wind 
from  the  west  or  the  northwest,  these  enormous 
drifts,  elevated  above  the  surrounding  region, 
must  continue  to  extend  themselves,  burying  all 
vegetable  growth  far  below  their  surface,  and 
carrying  with  them  the  desolation  which  every 
where  met  my  eyes.  We  followed  a  broad  track, 
like  one  made  over  fresh- fallen  snow,  and  which 
the  next  wind  must  efface,  for  nearly  two  miles, 
amidst  a  crowd  of  people  returning  from  the 
desert.  At  length  the  walls  of  the  fortress  of 
El  Areesh,  built  by  the  French  in  the  time  of  the 
Directory,  were  before  us.  The  drifts  had 
reached  the  foot  of  its  western  wall,  covering 
the  site  of  former  habitations,  traces  of  which 
were  yet  visible,  and  half  burying  one  or  two 


EL   AHEESH.  141 

structures  of  stone  which  had  been  abandoned. 
The  town  is  a  little  collection  of  huts,  within  the 
walls  of  the  fortress,  and  on  its  eastern  side. 
The  inhabitants  subsist  by  rearing  camels,  which 
find  a  broad  range  and  abundant  pasturage  in 
the  neighboring  desert. 

The  Arabs  of  our  party  were  all  inhabitants  of 
El  Areesh ;  their  friends  came  about  us  to  help 
them  unload  their  camels,  and  our  tents  were 
soon  pitched  on  the  edge  of  the  loose  sands,  to 
the  south  of  the  fortress.  Meantime  we  strolled 
into  the  town,  which  presented  the  usual  aspect 
of  the  Arab  villages  we  had  seen — rows  of  low 
flat-roofed  houses  built  of  mud,  put  into  the 
shape  of  brick — narrow  streets,  filth,  and  people 
asking  alms.  In  that  part  of  the  town  which  lay 
east  of  the  fortress  was  a  well,  with  a  large  wheel 
for  raising  its  brackish  water,  which  the  people 
of  the  place,  who  had  probably  never  tasted  any 
better,  assured  us  was  excellent.  A  little  east 
ward  of  the  village  stood  a  small  building  of 
stone,  with  four  open  arches  on  the  sides.  It 
covered  a  broad,  deep  well,  regularly  lined  with 
hewn  stone,  from  which  the  neighboring  fields 
might  have  been  irrigated  a  hundred  years  ago, 


143  INVASION    OF   THE   SAND. 

but  it  was  now  dry.  At  a  little  distance  to  the 
southwest  of  our  encampment  was  an  enclosure 
of  fruit-trees,  the  fig  and  apricot,  protected  by  a 
wall ;  the  hills  of  sand  were  already  peeping  over 
it,  and  had  invaded  one  corner,  threatening  to 
overwhelm  the  whole  in  a  short  time. 


TENTH  DAY.  143 


LETTEK  XL 

Tenth  day  of  the  journey.— Picturesque  costumes.— Spirited  horses  and. 
horsemanship.— Trouble  with  passports. — Barley-fields. — Women 
cutting  up  juniper. — Tributes  to  the  Arabs. — An  Arab  exquisite.— 
A  pastoral  region.— Another  tribute.— A  salt  lake.— Safayda.— Tomb  of 
a  Santon. — Flocks  of  birds. — Frightful  scream  of  a  jackal. — Reading 
the  Scriptures. — A  troop  of  dervishes. — An  Arab  cemetery. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  February  22d,  1853. 
NEXT  morning,  as  we  were  striking  our  tents 
and  loading  our  camels,  we  were  surrounded  by 
a  large  circle  of  admiring  spectators,  men,  women, 
and  children,  who  came  to  see  the  Franks  and 
the  monkey.  "  Thieves,  all,"  said  the  father  of 
couriers — I  believe  he  slandered  them — "  every 
one  of  them  thieves,"  and  drawing  his  short 
sword,  the  first  time  he  had  employed  it  in  our 
defence,  he  rushed  among  them  with  a  terrific 
shout  and  dispersed  them.  In  the  mean  time,  a 
little  party  of  cavalry  belonging  to  the  detach 
ment  which  we  had  seen  leaving  Belbays,  rode 
up  to  the  fortress,  from  their  camp  in  a  palm- 
grove,  north  of  the  town,  on  the  sea-shore.  We 
could  not  but  admire  their  picturesque  costume, 
so  gracefully  worn ;  that  of  each  individual  dif- 


144  ARAB   HOE  SEMAN SHIP. 

fering  in  some  respect  of  color  or  arrangement 
from  those  of  all  the  rest.  Some  had  muskets 
slung  on  their  backs,  one  or  two  carried  theirs 
on  their  shoulders,  with  the  butt  behind  them, 
and  one  bore  the  black  ensign  of  the  Egyptian 
cavalry.  They  rode  spirited  and  well-trained 
horses,  which  they  managed  with  perfect  ease, 
galloping  swiftly  to  and  fro,  and  stopping  or 
wheeling  them  in  mid-speed.  I  have  seen  noth 
ing  more  showy  and  striking  in  all  the  East,  and 
scarce  anywhere  else,  than  the  spectacle  of  one 
of  these  horsemen,  armed  and  arrayed  in  the 
Oriental  fashion,  and  managing  his  horse  in  the 
Oriental  manner.  The  government  here  is  be 
ginning  to  put  its  soldiers  into  a  clumsy  uniform 
of  jacket  and  pantaloons,  in  which  they  make  an 
insignificant  appearance. 

El  Areesh  is  the  frontier  town  of  the  dominions 
of  the  Egyptian  Viceroy.  Two  men  came  early 
in  the  morning  for  our  passports,  telling  us  that 
they  would  be  examined,  and  returned  in  a  few 
minutes.  We  were  ready  to  depart,  and  they 
had  not  arrived ;  we  sent  our  dragoman  to  de 
mand  them.  In  the  mean  time  we  had  leisure  to 
observe  the  people  who  gathered  about  us.  The 


A   CHURLISH   OFFICIAL.  145 

peculiarities  of  the  Egyptian  physiognomy, 
which  give  it  a  resemblance  to  the  faces  sculp 
tured  in  the  old  hieroglyphics,  had  entirely  dis 
appeared.  Some  of  the  men  had  fine  persons 
and  majestic  beards,  and  a  few  light  hair  and 
gray  or  blue  eyes. 

Our  dragoman  returned  with  the  passports  in 
about  an  hour.  Ten  minutes  would  have  suf 
ficed  to  examine  and  countersign  them,  but  the 
governor  of  the  place,  a  lazy  Turk,  declared  that 
he  would  not  look  at  them  till  he  had  his  coffee. 
When  he  had  got  his  coffee,  he  declared  that  he 
would  not  attend  to  any  business  till  he  had 
finished  his  pipe.  After  smoking  till  he  had 
brought  himself  to  a  more  complying  humor,  he 
wrote  two  or  three  words  in  Arabic  on  each  of 
the  passports,  and  handed  them  to  our  mes 
senger. 

We  set  forward  about  half-past  nine  o'clock, 
amidst  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats,  with  a  few 
camels  and  asses  which  the  herdsmen  of  El 
Areesh  were  driving  afield.  The  region  immedi 
ately  east  of  the  town  had  the  appearance  of 
being  susceptible  of  cultivation,  and  here  and 

there  we  saw  patches  of  barley  which  showed  that 
13 


146  ARAB   WOMEN. 

the  soil  was  not  naturally  unfruitful.  Crossing 
a  dry  water-course,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
the  town,  we  entered  a  tract  of  pasturage  and 
bushes  where  women  were  cutting  up  with  mat 
tocks  an  evergreen  shrub,  apparently  a  sort  of 
heath,  which  they  used  to  heat  their  ovens.  In 
an  Arab  household,  it  is  the  goodwife  whose 
business  it  is  to  provide  the  fuel.  A  troop  of 
women,  barefoot,  in  the  usual  loose  dress  of  blue 
cotton,  passed  us,  bearing  bundles  of  this  brush 
wood  on  their  heads,  and  looking  at  us  shyly 
from  under  the  mantles  which  they  drew  over 
the  lower  part  of  their  faces.  The  country  here 
was  full  of  flocks,  each  tended  separately  by  its 
keepers,  men  or  women  ;  and  in  the  more  fertile 
places  were  little  fields  of  springing  barley. 

At  a  distance  of  three  or  four  miles  from  El 
Areesh,  we  entered  upon  a  territory  possessed  by 
the  race  of  Arabs  who  dwell  in  tents.  Here  the 
traveller  pays  a  fixed  tribute,  which  has  the  sanc 
tion  of  the  government,  to  the  sheikhs,  in  consid 
eration  of  which  they  engage  to  protect  him 
against  robberies  within  their  respective  dis 
tricts  ;  in  other  words,  they  accept  the  tribute  as 
a  compensation  for  the  robberies  they  would 


TRIBUTE   TO   THE    SHEIKHS.  147 

otherwise  commit.  Our  dragoman  was  to  pay 
these  tributes,  among  the  other  expenses  of  our 
journey. 

Two  men,  one  on  foot  and  the  other  on  horse 
back,  were  seen  coming  over  an  eminence  to  the 
east  of  our  path  ;  our  dragoman  stopped,  held  a 
spirited  parley  in  Arabic  with  the  one  on  foot, 
and  ended  by  giving  him  money.  I  was  much 
struck  with  the  showy  costume  of  this  chief,  and 
quite  as  much  with  a  certain  grim  beauty  in  his 
aspect.  He  wore  a  snowy  white  turban,  a  long 
white  shirt  with  a  red  tunic  over  it,  a  sabre  by 
his  side,  and  thrown  over  one  shoulder  an  Arab 
cloak,  with  broad  stripes  of  white  and  black. 
His  person  was  thin  and  sinewy,  his  features  reg 
ular,  with  a  jetty  beard,  a  keen  restless  eye,  and 
two  rows  of  even,  glittering  teeth,  that  were  visi 
ble  to  the  very  corners  of  his  mouth  at  the  least 
motion  of  his  lips.  His  companion,  who  was 
scarcely  less  showily  arrayed,  was  an  elder  and 
graver  man  ;  he  wore  a  sabre  and  carried  a  long 
pipe,  which  he  smoked  during  the  conference.  I 
asked  our  dragoman  what  was  the  subject  of  the 
dispute. 

"  The  tribute  allowed  by  the  government,"  he 


148  A  PASTORAL   REGION. 

replied,  "  is.  three  piastres  for  each  traveller  ;  the 
servants  pay  nothing.  That  sheikh  insisted  on 
having  three  piastres  from  each  of  us,  with  the 
exception  of  our  four  Arabs.  I  paid  him  twelve 
piastres  for  our  four  travellers,  and  three  more 
for  bakhshish.  •  He  knew  he  was  not  entitled  to 
any  more,  for  he  thanked  me  and  wished  us  a 
good  journey." 

The  country  now  wore  a  pastoral  look;  on 
each  side  of  our  way  were  flocks  tended  by 
groups  of  men  and  women,  whose  voices  are 
often  heard  before  they  are  in  sight.  The  herb 
age  became  more  abundant  as  we  went  on,  and 
the  flowers  larger,  but  everywhere  the  verdure 
was  overlooked  by  a  range  of  smooth  hills  of 
sand  on  our  left,  threatening  to  overwhelm  us. 
We  took  our  lunch  in  a  salt-plain,  from  which  we 
entered  on  a  long,  narrow,  green  vale,  fragrant 
with  a  yellow  flower  of  a  plant  called  by  our 
dragoman  the  wild  camomile.  I  was  walking  on 
with  two  of  my  companions,  when  we  saw  be 
fore  us,  sitting  on  a  bank  by  the  path,  four  men, 
two  of  them  armed  with  muskets,  who  were  soon 
joined  by  a  fifth.  They  were  the  collectors  of  the 
revenue  for  the  sheikh  of  a  new  district.  We 


BEAUTY   OF   TIIE   FLOCKS.  149 

saluted  them  and  passed  on,  but  they  stopped 
our  caravan  as  it  carne  up ;  another  parley  was 
held,  and  another  tribute  of  twelve  piastres  paid. 

We  walked  on  through  a  flock  of  sheep  and 
goats  feeding  on  both  sides  of  our  way,  tended 
by  women,  who  ran  away  at  our  approach ;  all 
but  one  slender  brown  maiden,  who  kept  watch 
of  her  charge  and  us  from  a  neighboring  bank. 
We  stopped  to  observe  the  beauty  of  the  ani 
mals,  which  had  a  well-fed  appearance.  The 
goats  were  black,  with  long,  wavy  hair,  which 
glistened  like  silk  in  the  sunshine.  The  sheep, 
many  of  which  were  young,  and  had  not  yet 
parted  with  their  first  fleece,  were  beautifully 
marked;  they  had  black  feet,  coal-black  heads 
for  the  most  part,  and  fleeces  of  clean  white, 
with  broad  spots  of  raven  black.  As  we  stood 
looking  at  them,  the  maiden  stretched  her  little 
brown  neck  above  the  shrubs,  as  if  she  were  not 
perfectly  sure  whether  we  were  not  making  our 
choice  of  the  best  of  her  flock. 

After  we  had  again  mounted  our  camels,  we 
came  to  a  sandy  ridge  crossing  our  path,  close 
by  which  stood  a  young  Arab,  of  placid  features, 
who  seemed  to  be  waiting  for  us.  We  stopped, 


150  A  NUBIAN. 

and  after  a  moment's  conversation  the  young  fel 
low  was  joined  by  a  tall,  thin  black  man,  a  Nu 
bian,  as  they  call  them  here,  wearing  a  white  tur 
ban,  a  long  white  shirt,  and  a  sabre,  who  took  up 
the  discourse  and  spoke  with  much  energy  and 
gesticulation.  Here  was  another  demand  for 
tribute.  Twelve  piastres  were  put  into  the  palm 
of  the  negro,  who  handed  them  over  to  the  Arab, 
the  sheikh  of  the  district,  or  the  sheikh's  son. 

As  we  went  on,  Arabs  and  their  animals  were 
seen  everywhere  around  us,  but  nowhere  a  trace 
of  human  habitation.  Larger  tracts  of  land 
under  tillage  appeared  than  we  had  before  seen 
in  the  desert,  some  green  with  barley,  others  just 
ploughed,  others  lying  fallow.  At  length  our 
road  ran  for  a  short  distance  along  the  banks  of 
a  clear  little  lake.  I  dismounted  and  tasted  its 
waters  ;  they  were  as  salt  as  the  ocean.  To  the 
north  of  this  lake  was  a  smooth  round  hill  of 
sand,  evidently  advancing  into  it,  and  there,  half 
buried  by  the  drifts,  stood  a  little  grove  of  palms. 
To  the  east  of  the  lake  was  a  salt-plain,  into 
which  we  passed,  ending  in  smooth  slopes, 
clothed  with  short  herbage,  where  cows,  sheep, 
and  camels,  tended  by  Arabs,  were  grazing. 


TOMB   OF  A   SAIXT.  151 

Here  were  the  walls  of  a  few  ruined  cottages,  a 
cemetery  beyond  them,  in  which  stood  a  wely,  or 
tomb  of  a  Mohammedan  saint,  with  a  white 
washed  dome,  and  near  the  cemetery  a  few  palm- 
trees. 

"  This  place,"  said  our  dragoman,  "  is  called 
Safzayda,  and  here  we  stop  for  the  night.  A  few 
years  ago  there  was  a  village  on  this  spot,  and  in 
former  times,  I  am  told,  a  considerable  town." 
Our  people  immediately  began  to  unload  the 
camels  and  to  pitch  our  tents  in  the  midst  of  the 
flocks,  while  I  strolled  toward  the  cemetery. 

Within  the  tomb  of  the  saint  was  a  rude  sar 
cophagus  of  stone,  plastered  over  with  mortar, 
and  covered  with  a  faded  green  cloth.  Above  it 
was  stretched  a  cord,  on  which  were  strung  bits 
of  cloth,  shells,  and  little  frames  of  wood  and 
paper  stained  with  various  colors,  which  I  after 
ward  learned  were  suspended  there  by  persons 
afflicted  with  diseases,  in  the  belief  that  there 
was  a  virtue  in  the  tomb  of  a  holy  man  which 
would  work  a  cure.  A  marble  slab,  at  the  door 
of  the  tomb,  bore  a  long  Arabic  inscription,  the 
only  one  in  all  that  place.  The  tombs  around 
were  numerous,  formed  of  small  stones  covered 


152  SMALL   BIHDS. 

with  coarse  mortar,  but  the  more  recent  graves 
merely  had  loose  stones  piled  over  them,  or  were 
heaped  with  earth.  The  Bedouins  had  made  this 
their  burial-place. 

The  sun  was  now  setting ;  women,  in  blue 
gowns,  and  shrill-voiced  boys,  were  running 
about,  hastily  gathering  their  herds  and  flocks, 
and  driving  them  over  the  hill  to  the  south  of  us 
till  the  last  of  them  had  disappeared  ;  thousands 
of  small  birds,  keeping  up  an  incessant  twitter 
ing,  were  settling  on  the  palms  about  us,  their 
perch  for  the  night,  till  the  rigid  branches  bent 
with  their  weight.  I  returned  to  our  tent,  where 
our  Arabs  had  collected  brushwood  and  had  kin 
dled  a  fire,  by  which  they  were  to  keep  watch 
during  the  night  against  the  Bedouins  and  the 
jackals.  At  El  Areesh  we  had  left  behind  our  don 
key,  which  had  grown  thin  with  wading  through 
the  sand,  and  had  re-enforced  our  caravan  with 
two  more  Arabs,  one  of  whom,  a  young  fellow, 
rode  one  of  the  camels,  and  the  other,  a  stout- 
legged  man,  armed  with  a  brace  of  pistols,  which 
he  carried  in  his  gay-colored  sash,  walked  with 
the  rest.  The  young  man  had  made  a  luxurious 
bed  on  the  ground  with  mats  and  quilts,  but  the 


READING   THE   SCRIPTURES.  153 

other  was  preparing  to  pass  the  night  with  the 
camel-drivers. 

One  of  the  entertainments  of  our  journey 
through  the  desert  was  reading  books  of  travels 
relating  to  the  country  through  which  we  were 
passing.  Sometimes  as  we  sat  on  our  camels  one 
would  read  aloud  for  the  benefit  of  the  rest,  and 
in  the  evening,  before  we  became  drowsy,  which 
was  early  enough,  a  little  time  was  generally  em 
ployed  in  this  way.  For  these  evening  readings 
we  frequently  took  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  to 
which  the  scenes  around  us  gave  a  new  interest 
— narratives  of  the  journeys  of  the  early  He 
brews  to  the  land  of  Egypt.  Their  abode  in  the 
country,  their  passage  out  of  it,  and  wanderings 
in  the  desert,  which  once  brought  them  to  the 
very  region  in  which  we  were  travelling.  This 
evening,  while  we  were  thus  engaged,  we  were 
startled  by  loud  cries,  close  to  our  tent,  and  al 
most  in  our  ears.  The  sounds  had  in  them  some 
thing  frightfully  human.  "  It  is  a  jackal,"  said 
one  of  the  attendants.  The  animal  had  come 
prowling  about  our  tent,  but  must  have  been 
scared  away  immediately,  for  we  afterward  heard 
the  same  cries  from  a  distance. 


154  ARAB  PILGRIMS. 

Next  morning,  soon  after  sunrise,  I  went  tc 
the  top  of  the  hill  which  lay  south  of  iis,  but 
nowhere  could  I  descry  the  habitations  of  the 
1  Arabs,  though  we  had  heard  their  dogs  answering 
the  jackals  all  night.  I  returned  to  our  encamp 
ment,  where,  as  we  were  at  breakfast,  we  ob 
served  a  troop  of  ten  men  on  foot  approaching 
by  the  road  we  had  travelled  the  day  before. 
About  half  their  number  wore  high,  shaggy 
woollen  caps,  of  a  brown  color,  the  costume  of 
the  dervishes,  and  two  of  them  carried  on  their 
backs  loads  of  dry  brushwood.  They  halted  at 
a  little  distance  from  us,  sat  down  in  a  circle  on 
the  ground, 'and  sent  one  of  the  wearers  of  the 
shaggy  caps  to  borrow  a  live  coal  or  two  from 
our  cook's  fire.  "We  learned  from  him  that  this 
was  a  troop  of  holy  men,  pilgrims  from  Persia 
and  Bokhara,  who  had  been  to  Mecca,  and  were 
now  on  their  way  to  the  holy  places  in  Syria. 
The  dervish  was  a  good-natured  looking  fellow, 
with  a  pair  of  blinking  eyes,  ragged,  barefooted, 
and  fat.  He  returned  to  his  companions,  and 
probably  made  a  report  to  them  of  what  he  saw 
on  our  breakfast-table,  for  immediately  another 
deputation  was  sent,  asking  for  something  to  eat. 


A   BURIAL-PLACE.  155 

Our  dragoman,  thrifty  in  his  charity,  gave  them 
two  loaves  of  bread,  brought  from  Cairo,  which 
had  begun  to  be  a  little  mouldy. 

TTliile  our  camels  were  loading,  I  walked  again 
to  the  Arab  burial-place.  Even  in  this  desert  is 
felt  the  instinct  which  prompts  us  to  beautify  the 
resting-places  of  the  dead.  The  region  produces 
a  liliaceous  plant,  with  a  large  bulb  and  large 
thick  leaves  of  a  deep-green  color.  Bunches  of 
these  were  planted  at  the  head  and  foot  of  many 
of  the  graves.  A  singular  custom,  I  perceived, 
prevails  here,  of  laying  the  garments  of  the  dead 
on  the  ground  above  them.  At  the  head  of  one 
of  the  graves  lay  a  woman's  blue  cotton  dress,  as 
fresh,  almost,  in  appearance,  as  if  it  had  just 
come  from  the  loom.  I  remarked  several  arti 
cles  of  male  attire,  some  of  them  much  decayed 
by  the  length  of  time  they  had  remained  on  the 
ground.  On  one  poor  fellow's  grave  lay  only  his 
thrum-cap,  probably  the  sole  part  of  his  raiment 
which  was  thought  in  a  fit  condition  to  serve  as 
his  monument.  The  grave  of  a  child  fixed  my 
attention,  at  each  end  of  which  a  tuft  of  the 
plant  I  have  already  mentioned  was  growing 
freshly,  and  between  them  lay  a  little  garment  of 


156  DECORATIONS  OF  TIIE  GRAVES. 

blue  cotton,  and  another  of  white,  with  a  crim 
son  stripe  running  through  it.  Near  by,  and 
probably  dragged  away  by  the  jackals,  was  the 
skin  of  a  lamb,  with  a  soft  silky  fleece,  which 
had  formed  the  child's  outer  garment  in  winter. 
I  replaced  it  on  the  grave,  and  could  not  help 
thinking  how  tenderly,  to  judge  by  these  tokens, 
that  child  must  have  been  cherished,  and  that, 
when  it  was  carried  out  dead  from  the  humble 
abode  of  its  parents,  their  low  brown  tent  pitched 
on  the  greensward,  the  heart  of  its  mother  must 
have  been  pierced  by  a  sorrow  as  sharp  as  is  felt 
at  such  a  loss  in  the  most  civilized  country. 


ASPECT   OF   THE   REGION.  157 


LETTER  XII. 

Cultivated  fields  between  bare  sand-hills.— Kuins  of  Rhaphia.— The  vir 
gin's  fountain.— Khan  Yoonas.— Fruit-trees  in  bloom.— Our  party  in 
quarantine. — We  pass  the  night  in  a  cemetery. — A  crowd  of  women  in 
white,  among  the  graves. — Oranges.—  Distinguished-looking  visit- 
ore.— Departure  from  Khan  Yoonas.— Pilgrims.— The  scarlet  anem 
one.— Old  sycamores.— Men  ploughing  with  camels.— We  enter  the 
lazaretto  at  Gaza. — View  of  the  country  from  our  windows. — Foolish, 
look  of  the  dervishes. — Our  monkey  attacks  one  of  the  holy  men. — 
An  Arab  virago.— Show  of  tongues.— Release  from  the  lazaretto. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  February  22d,  1853. 
IT  was  a  cool  morning,  and  on  leaving  Safzay- 
da,  I  walked  on  before  the  caravan,  with  two  of 
my  companions,  in  a  long  valley,  between  culti 
vated  fields  on  each  side  of  the  way  for  a  con 
siderable  distance,  in  the  midst  of  which  a  broad 
irregular  stripe  of  greensward  and  shrubs  was 
left  for  travellers.  Arab  men  and  women  ap 
peared  from  time  to  time  on  the  heights  with 
their  sheep  and  camels,  and  groups  of  women 
were  chattering  in  the  road  before  us,  who  took 
good  care  to  be  out  of  our  way  as  we  approached. 
The  long  line  of  bare  sand-hills  which  border  the 
sea  continued  in  sight  to  the  northwest,  and  once 
we  had  a  view  of  the  Mediterranean  over  it. 
Not  long  afterward  we  came  to  a  region  of  pas 
turage,  where  the  ground  was  covered  with  short 
14 


158  KHAPHIA. 

herbage,  consisting  principally  of  a  kind  of  tre 
foil,  with  very  minute  leaves,  and  here,  in  a  shal 
low  vale,  sheltered  on  the  east  and  north,  and 
opening  to  the  southwest,  lay  the  dark  brown 
tents  of  the  Bedouins,  made  of  a  coarse  cloth, 
woven  from  the  fleeces  of  their  sheep.  Cows, 
sheep,  goats,  and  camels  were  grazing  about  us, 
and  from  the  tents  the  whooping  of  children  was 
heard. 

On  the  right  of  our  path,  at  a  little  distance 
before  us,  appeared  a  mound,  on  which  stood 
two  columns,  their  pedestals  buried  in  the  earth, 
which  was  full  of  bits  of  marble  and  fragments 
of  pottery.  Here  was  the  site  of  Ehaphia,  once 
a  populous  city.  "  These  columns,"  said  the 
dragoman,  "belonged  to  a  Greek  church,  built 
where  the  Virgin  rested  in  her  flight  to  Egypt, 
and  you  will  see  more  of  them  a  little  further  on, 
in  a  place  where  we  shall  take  our  lunch.  There 
is  a  fountain  of  sweet  water  there,  which  came 
out  of  the  ground  by  a  miracle,  to  quench  the 
Yirgin's  thirst."  We  descended  from  the  mound 
into  a  hollow,  where  this  miraculous  fountain 
was.  It  was  a  deep  well,  with  a  very  little  water 
in  it,  around  which  lay  scattered  several  marble 


A^   YOOXAS.  159 


columns,  and  broken  pedestals  of  columns.  The 
herbage  was  here  luxuriant,  and  our  camels 
cropped  it  eagerly. 

At  a  little  past  two  o'clock  on  that  day,  the 
10  th  of  February,  we  found  ourselves  among 
the  gardens  of  Khan  Yoonas,  the  frontier  town 
of  Syria.  They  were  hedged  with  rows  of  the 
prickly  pear,  and  full  of  almond,  peach,  and  apri 
cot  trees,  in  full  bloom,  with  here  and  there  a 
tamarisk  and  sycamore  next  to  the  way.  Just 
at  the  entrance  of  the  town,  which  is  a  wretched 
one,  we  were  conducted  into  an  enclosure  serving 
as  a  lazaretto,  surrounded  by  a  fence  formed  by 
the  branches  of  a  thorny  tree,  called  the  nebek, 
set  upright  in  the  ground  —  and  were  informed 
that  we  were  in  quarantine.  Part  of  a  Turkish 
cemetery  had  been  taken  into  the  lazaretto,  and 
we  pitched  our  tents  and  spread  our  carpets  on 
the  old  neglected  graves.  In  that  part  of  the 
cemetery  which  lay  without  were  more  than  fifty 
women,  nearly  all  in  white,  with  long  white  man 
tles  covering  the  head  and  reaching  nearly  down 
to  the  feet,  sitting  around  the  graves  or  moving 
silently  among  them  like  ghosts.  "  They  are 
mourning  for  the  dead,"  said  Yincenzo. 


160  IN   QUARANTINE. 

Our  new  acquaintances,  the  pilgrims,  two  or 
three  of  them  bearing  a  load  of  brushwood,  en 
tered  the  enclosure  along  with  us  and  squatted 
down  in  one  corner.  In  another  part  a  company 
of  Arabs,  men,  women,  and  children,  had  estab 
lished  themselves ;  the  men,  after  taking  their 
midday  meal,  rolled  themselves  in  their  cloaks, 
covering  their  heads  from  sight,  and  lay  asleep 
on  the  ground.  The  keepers  of  the  quarantine 
had  a  hut  of  dry  reeds  and  boughs  within  the 
lazaretto,  before  which  they  were  posted  with 
clubs  and  boughs  of  trees,  to  keep  the  travellers 
from  going  out,  and  from  coming  too  near  the 
people  of  the  place  when  they  entered  the  laza 
retto.  One  of  our  caravan  bought  some  oranges 
of  one  of  the  keepers.  He  threw  a  piastre 
toward  the  keeper,  who  poured  a  pitcher  of 
water  over  it  as  it  lay  on  the  ground,  to  purify 
it  from  the  contagion  we  were  supposed  to  bring 
from  Egypt,  and  then  taking  it  up,  tossed  back 
four  oranges. 

Next  morning,  before  sunrise,  the  pilgrims 
were  heard  chanting  their  prayers.  While  we 
were  breakfasting  and  loading  our  camels,  three 
men,  of  a  remarkably  striking  appearance,  entered 


DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS.  161 

the  lazaretto,  and  after  standing  awhile  to  ob 
serve  us,  sat  down  on  a  mat  before  the  hut,  and 
watched  our  proceedings  at  their  leisure.  One 
of  them,  in  a  snowy-white  turban,  had  a  beard 
as  white,  and  was  wrapped  in  an  ample  black 
gown ;  another,  of  tall  stature  and  lofty  air,  in  a 
costume  of  intermingled  white,  red,  and  yellow, 
wore  red  morocco  boots  and  a  sabre  with  a  glit 
tering  handle  and  scabbard ;  the  third,  younger 
than  either,  had  on  the  amplest  and  whitest  of 
oriental  petticoats.  About  eight  o'clock,  a  man 
on  a  spirited  horse,  and  wearing  a  sabre,  pre 
sented  himself  at  the  entrance  of  the  lazaretto  ; 
it  was  our  guardian  who  was  to  accompany  us  to 
Gaza.  The  term  of  quarantine  performed  by 
travellers  arriving  in  Syria  from  Egypt  is  five 
days.  The  day  on  which  they  arrive  at  Khan 
Yoonas,  if  they  enter  the  lazaretto  before  sunset, 
is  counted  as  the  first ;  the  day  passed  in  travel 
ling  from  Khan  Yoonas  to  Gaza  is  the  second ; 
two  days  and  three  nights  are  then  passed  in  the 
lazaretto  at  Gaza,  and  the  day  on  the  morning 
of  which  they  leave  the  lazaretto  completes  the 
five. 

At  half-past  eight  we  left  the  lazaretto  under 
14* 


162  A  TRAIN   OF   TRAVELLERS. 

the  conduct  of  our  guardian — a  long  train  of 
Franks,  pilgrims,  Arab  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  camels,  and  asses.  Of  the  children,  eight 
or  nine  in  number,  some  were  put  on  the  don 
keys,  others  were  carried  by  their  parents,  and 
our  good-natured  Arabs  gave  a  woman  and  her 
baby  a  seat  on  one  of  their  camels.  One  of  the 
donkeys  trotted  along  under  a  cluster  of  three 
children,  clinging  to  each  other,  the  eldest  of 
whom,  not  more  than  eight  years  old,  guided  the 
animal.  We  had  left  the  desert,  and  now  en 
tered  on  a  grassy  plain  with  a  range  of  sand 
hills  on  its  western  boundary,  and  verdant  emi 
nences  to  the  east.  It  was  gaudy  with  yellow 
flowers,  and  in  some  places  red  with  the  scarlet 
anemone,  and  over  it  were  scattered,  at  consid 
erable  distances  from  each  other,  sycamores  cen 
turies  old,  with  enormous  gnarled  and  twisted 
trunks.  Our  pilgrims,  as  they  marched  before 
us,  sang  in  chorus  one  of  their  hymns,  the  sound 
of  which  canie  to  us  on  the  wind. 

Two  or  three  miles  north  of  Khan  Yoonas  ap 
peared,  far  to  the  east,  a  cluster  of  the  dark  tents 
of  the  Bedouins,  with  smoke  rising  from  them. 
They  were  probably  inhabited  by  the  keepers  of 


GAZA — THE   LAZARETTO.  163 

the  flocks  which  were  feeding  near  our  path,  and 
which  our  guardian,  with  drawn  sabre,  chased 
out  of  our  way,  lest  peradventure  we  should  give 
them  the  plague.  As  the  people  of  the  country 
met  us,  the  cry  of  carantina,  carantina!  was 
raised,  and  they  turned  to  the  right  or  the  left, 
allowing  us  a  broad  passage  over  the  plain. 

As  we  approached  Gaza,  the  number  of  trees 
diminished,  and  the  tilled  fields  became  more 
numerous.  We  saw  people  ploughing  with  cam 
els  ;  the  ploughs  were  of  wood,  light,  and  with  a 
slender  upright  handle  ;  the  wooden  share  merely 
scratched  the  surface  of  the  ground.  At  length 
we  came  in  sight  of  the  minarets  of  Gaza,  situ 
ated  amidst  gardens  and  trees  and  gentle  emi 
nences.  The  guardian  made  our  whole  train 
enter  the  lazaretto,  an  enclosure  with  high  walls, 
just  at  the  entrance  of  the  town,  having  a  large 
well  in  the  midst,  and  a  long  low  building  near 
the  side,  opposite  to  the  entrance.  At  each  end 
of  this  building  was  a  second  story,  consisting  of 
two  small  chambers,  one  set  of  which  was  as 
signed  to  us,  while  our  dragoman  and  his  people 
occupied  a  room  below. 

It  was  now  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and 


164         EMPLOYMENTS  IN  THE  LAZARETTO. 

we  had  the  rest  of  the  day  and  two  days  more  to 
pass  in  the  lazaretto.  We  did  not  find  our  im 
prisonment  so  tedious  as  we  expected.  We  read, 
we  wrote,  we  paced  the  wall  at  our  end  of  the 
lazaretto ;  we  looked  at  the  surrounding  country 
from  our  windows  ;  a  green,  treeless  plain  to  the 
south  ;  and  to  the  north  a  region  rising  into 
pleasant  slopes,  covered  with  trees,  mostly  the 
olive,  among  which  stood  the  flat-roofed  build 
ings  of  the  town  and  its  towering  minarets. 
Over  this  scene  were  sweeping  the  shadows  of 
clouds  brought  by  a  cool  wind  from  the  sea. 
We  observed  the  women  of  the  place  washing 
clothes  at  a  little  sheet  of  water  at  the  east  of  us, 
almost  under  the  walls  of  the  lazaretto,  or  sitting 
on  the  grass  in  their  long  white  mantles,  with 
their  children  playing  beside  them.  We 
watched  our  friends,  the  dervishes  and  pilgrims, 
at  their  devotions,  prostrating  themselves  on 
their  faces  from  time  to  time,  in  their  prayers, 
which  they  uttered  inaudibly,  with  moving  lips. 
These  holy  men  had  their  time  fully  occupied 
with  prayers,  sleeping  in  the  sun,  and  picking 
the  vermin — the  lice,  if  you  must  have  the  word 
— from  the  inside  of  their  garments,  which  they 


DERTISHES.  165 

took  off  and  carefully  examined  once  a  day  at 
least,  during  their  stay  in  the  lazaretto.  Five  of 
the  party,  we  now  learned,  were  regular  der 
vishes  ;  the  others,  ordinary  pilgrims.  The  der 
vishes  were  particularly  ragged,  with  patched 
garments  of  many  colors  ;  but  they  looked  well- 
fed,  and  had  a  foolish  expression  of  face.  The 
only  man  among  them  who  was  not  ragged  was 
one  of  the  ordinary  pilgrims,  a  lean  fellow,  with 
an  anxious  look,  who  wore  a  sabre  by  his  side. 
The  dervishes  manifested  a  great  desire  to  amuse 
themselves  with  our  monkey,  after  an  example 
which  we  had  set  them  ;  but  the  creature,  though 
tolerably  well-behaved  toward  our  party,  would 
endure  no  familiarities  from  strangers.  He  was 
fastened  by  a  long  cord  to  the  iron  grate  of  our 
dragoman's  window,  but  whenever  the  dervishes 
approached  him,  he  sprung  at  them  into  the  air, 
with  his  fiercest  grin,  and  tore  their  rags  and 
their  sacred  skins  without  mercy.  We  saw  the 
blood  trickling  down  the  plump,  swarthy  leg  of 
the  principal  dervish  of  the  party,  after  a  brief 
interview  with  the  monkey. 

Among  those  who  entered  the  lazaretto  with 
us  was  an  Arab  family  with  several  children,  the 


166  AN  ARAB  SCOLD. 

mother  of  which  was  endowed  with  a  shrill  voice 
and  a  most  voluble  tongue.  She  was  in  constant- 
dispute  with  one  of  the  keepers,  who  brought  us 
bread  from  the  town,  and  who  insisted  upon 
having  his  profit  on  every  loaf.  For  this  the 
woman  attacked  him  whenever  he  appeared,  with 
reproaches,  uttered  in  the  most  rapid  Arabic. 
To  do  him  justice,  he  stood  his  ground  bravely, 
and  answered  like  one  who  was  practised  in 
such  quarrels,  but  after  they  had  shouted  and 
gesticulated  at  each  other  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  he  generally  gave  in  and  retreated,  the 
woman  screaming  after  him  as  he  went.  One  of 
our  party  hearing  the  cause  of  her  complaint, 
gave  her  a  few  Turkish  coins  to  buy  bread  for 
her  children.  This  brought  upon  him  a  torrent 
of  thanks  and  blessings,  and  it  was  observed  that 
the  disputes  of  the  woman  with  the  keeper  were 
carried  on  with  less  animation. 

On  the  third  day  after  we  entered  the  laza 
retto,  a  little  before  sunset,  a  message  was 
brought  us  from  the  physician,  desiring  that  we 
would  do  him  the  favor  to  come  down  stairs. 
We  descended  to  the  court  of  the  lazaretto,  and 
stood  in  a  row  before  Dr.  Eperon,  a  slender 


A  SHOW   OF   TONGUES.  1C7 

Frenchman  of,  perhaps,  thirty  years  of  age,  who 
planted  himself  at  a  safe  distance  from  us,  and 
politely  asked  us  in  his  native  language  if  we 
were  quite  well. 

"  Perfectly  so,"  was  our  answer. 

"  I  am  glad  of  it,"  said  the  doctor  ;  "  but  you 
must  excuse  me  if  I  go  through  with  certain 
formalities.  Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  let  me  see 
your  tongues?" 

We  all  put  out  our  tongues  together. 

"  That  will  do,"  said  he  ;  "  to-morrow  morning, 
after  sunrise,  you  are  at  liberty  to  leave  the 
lazaretto."  We  bowed  and  returned  to  our 
rooms,  whither  we  were  followed  by  one  of  the 
keepers,  who  brought  a  brazier  full  of  live  coals, 
and  throwing  into  it  a  small  quantity  of  sulphur, 
fumigated  our  persons  and  our  clothes. 


168  THE  GATE  OF  GAZA. 


LETTER  XIII. 

Continuation  of  the  journey  to  Jerusalem.— The  Gate  of  Gaza.— A  vast 
olive-grove. — Curious  travelling  cradle. — Remains  of  a  Christian 
church. — Askelon. — Ancient  walls. — Sand  drifting  over  the  fields. — 
El  Medjal. — Little  oxen. — Rude  ploughs. — Ashdod. — Ruins  of  a  large 
Khan.— A  chorus  of  frogs.— Gazelles  feeding.— Village  of  Zebua.— 
Saracenic  bridges.— Women  carrying  burdens.— Town  of  Ramleh.— 
An  abandoned  tower.— Plain  of  Sharon.— A  convent,  where  we  pass 
the  night.— The  mosquitoes  from  the  cisterns. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  February  22d,  1853. 
ON  leaving  the  lazaretto  next  morning,  our 
dragoman  took  us  through  a  part  of  the  dirty 
town,  to  show  us  some  things  which,  he  said, 
were  always  visited  by  travellers.  He  stopped 
us  at  a  remnant  of  an  old  wall,  on  the  side  of 
which  was  seen  the  beginning  of  an  arch  that 
had  once,  apparently,  extended  over  the  way. 
"  This,"  said  he,  "  is  the  gate  of  Gaza,  the  doors 
of  which  were  carried  away  by  Samson.  There," 
pointing  to  some  granite  columns  lying  on  the 
ground,  "  are  part  of  the  temple  which  Samson 
pulled  down  upon  the  heads  of  the  Philistines." 
"We  did  not  linger  long  to  look  at  these  apocry 
phal  antiquities,  but  went  on  through  the  vast 
olive-grove  lying  north  of  the  town,  a  monument 
of  past  ages,  concerning  which  there  could  be  no 


AX  OLD   OLIVE-GROVE.  169 


doubt.  It  fills  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
from  east  to  west,  and  extends  northward  to  the 
distance  of  about  four  miles.  The  trees  are  old 
and  venerable,  with  enormous  stems  of  an  irreg 
ular  growth,  and  on  that  morning  the  sunshine 
came  down  pleasantly  among  them  upon  the  ver 
dure,  which  was  sprinkled  with  flowers.  We  met 
many  of  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  in  their 
picturesque  oriental  costume,  coming  into  town  ; 
some  of  them  driving  asses  loaded  with  green 
crops,  freshly  gathered.  On  one  of  these  ani 
mals  a  cradle,  made  for  carrying  an  infant,  was 
swinging,  supported  by  two  upright  posts,  fast 
ened  to  the  sides  of  the  saddle,  in  which  the  lit 
tle  traveller  might  ride  as  much  at  his  ease  as  in 
the  arms  of  his  mother. 

Our  dragoman  had  promised  to  show  us  the 
ruins  of  Askelon.  He  took  us  across  a  spur  of 
the  sand-hills,  that  border  the  sea,  a  waste  in 
which,  to  judge  from  the  huge  sycamores  still 
scattered  over  it,  harvests  had  once  been  gath 
ered,  and  descending  into  a  little  green  vale 
planted  with  olive-trees,  led  us  again  up  the 
banks  of  sand,  and  finally  brought  us  to  the  re 
mains  of  a  massive  wall,  with  a  broad  arched 
15 


170  ASKELON. 

door,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  sea 
shore.  "  These,"  said  he,  "  are  the  remains  of  a 
Christian  church  of  the  City  of  Askelon.  The 
columns  belonging  to  this  church  were  dragged 
to  the  sea  and  thrown  into  it,  when  the  city  was 
destroyed,  and  its  port  filled  up."  The  loose 
sands  had  drifted  about  the  spot  where  we  stood. 
Between  us  and  the  shore  were  other  remains — 
portions  of  ancient  walls  and  fortifications, 
against  which  the  sand  was  heaped,  and  the 
waves  of  the  sea  were  breaking  on  fragments  of 
old  quays,  now  wholly  deserted.  Only  in  a  little 
valley  to  the  northeast,  green  with  herbage,  and 
planted  with  fruit-trees,  stood  a  cluster  of  mud 
cottages;  all  that  is  left  of  that  great  commer 
cial  city  for  which  the  east  and  the  west  con 
tended  so  fiercely  for  so  many  centuries. 

From  this  scene  of  desolation  we  turned  away, 
and  descending  the  sand-hills  where  the  wind 
has  piled  them  about  the  olive-trees  almost  to 
their  upper  branches,  we  came  to  green  mead 
ows,  with  pools  of  rain-water  lying  among  them, 
overlooked  by  the  little  town  of  El  Medjal.  It 
is  pleasantly  situated  on  a  bank,  with  tall  mina 
rets  rising  above  its  trees.  Fortunately,  our  road 


SYRIAN   OXEN — ASHDOD.  171 

did  not  pass  through  it,  so  there  was  nothing  to 
mar  the  agreeable  impression  made  by  the 
beauty  of  its  aspect  at  a  little  distance.  Beyond, 
the  peasants  were  ploughing  their  fields  with 
light  ploughs,  drawn  by  little  oxen,  of  a  size, 
which  in  our  country,  would  make  them  pass  for 
steers  of  two  years  old.  One  hand  held  the  up 
right  handle  of  the  plough,  and  the  other  guided 
the  oxen.  The  shares,  as  they  traced  a  shallow 
furrow,  uprooted  tufts  of  narcissus  in  bloom. 

When  at  length  we  overtook  our  loaded  cam 
els,  they  had  stopped  for  the  night  on  a  tract  of 
pasturage,  where  herds  and  flocks  were  feeding, 
and  a  pool  of  fresh  water  lay  beside  the  ridge  of 
sand-hills.  At  a  little  distance  was  the  town  of 
Esdud,  the  Ashdod  of  the  Philistines  and  the 
Azotus  of  later  times,  seated  on  a  little  emi 
nence,  not  far  from  which  lay  the  ruins  of  a  spa 
cious  khan  or  caravanserai.  As  the  sun  was  go 
ing  down,  the  women  and  boys  of  the  village 
came  about  us,  collecting  the  sheep  and  cattle, 
and  driving  them  to  their  folds  for  the  night,  and 
laborers,  one  after  another,  passed  us,  returning 
from  the  fields,  with  donkeys  bearing  their 
ploughs,  harrows,  and  mattocks — for  no  vehicle 


172  A  KHAN. 

on  wheels,  even  of  the  humblest  kind,  is  ever  seen 
in  any  part  of  Syria. 

It  was  a  luxury  to  dine  again  in  our  tent,  un 
molested  by  flies,  which  swarmed  in  the  lazaretto 
we  had  left ;  and,  at  a  later  hour,  to  stretch  our 
limbs  on  our  beds,  sure  that  our  slumbers  would 
not  be  disturbed  by  fleas,  with  which  the  laza 
retto  was  alive  in  every  part.  There  was  a 
hoarse  chorus  of  frogs  from  the  pool,  but  this 
mingling  with  the  roar  of  the  Mediterranean  as 
it  broke  on  the  sand-hills  to  the  west  of  our  en 
campment,  was  really  sleep-inspiring.  In  the 
morning,  while  our  camels  were  getting  ready, 
we  visited  the  ruins  of  the  khan.  Massive  piers 
of  hewn  stone,  six  feet  in  diameter,  uphold  a  row 
of  pointed  Saracenic  arches,  surrounding  a  quad 
rangle  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  square,  the 
pavement  of  which  yet  remains.  Here  are  the 
vaults,  some  of  them  yet  entire,  in  which  travel 
lers  and  merchants  once  stabled  camels,  or  had 
their  merchandise  locked  up  for  the  night ;  and 
traces  of  the  hinges  are  yet  seen  upon  which  the 
huge  gates  of  the  place  were  turned.  The  khan 
in  these  parts  seems  once  to  have  served  not 
only  as  a  place  of  shelter,  but  as  a  stronghold, 


GAZELLES  FEEDING.  173 

in  which  the  caravans  were  safe  against  surprises 
by  night. 

"We  walked  up  to  the  town,  from  which  we  had  a 
view  of  the  surrounding  country.  A  broad,  shallow 
basin  lay  before  us,  green,  treeless,  fenceless,  un 
inhabited,  like  the  prairies  of  the  West.  Along 
the  bottom  of  this  vale  we  followed  a  path  lead 
ing  almost  due  north,  among  extensive  fields  of 
grain  and  wastes  of  pasturage.  About  noon, 
one  of  our  train  pointed  to  the  declivities  on 
the  eastern  side,  and  said :  "  There  are  gazelles 
feeding."  We  looked,  and  saw  twelve  of  these 
beautiful  creatures,  quietly  grazing  on  the  green 
slope,  seven  in  one  troop  and  five  in  another. 
Immediately  Balthas  was  on  the  ground,  with 
his  rifle,  in  pursuit  of  them.  They  took  the 
alarm,  and  began  to  move  off  slowly ;  he  fired 
while  yet  at  too  great  a  distance  for  any  certain 
aim,  and  the  instant  the  smoke  broke  from  the 
muzzle,  they  were  in  full  flight,  bounding  airily 
away  to  the  southeast,  till  they  were  out  of  sight. 
I  should  have  hardly  thought  it  possible  for  fear 
to  manifest  itself  so  gracefully. 

Our  caravan  made  its  halt  at  noon,  on  a  green 
near  the  village  of  Zebna,  where,  as  we  sat  on 
15* 


174  A  RUENED  CHURCH. 

the  grass,  we  had  before  us  a  fine  broad  valley  ; 
the  village,  with  a  square  tower  in  the  midst, 
seated  on  a  little  hill,  and  beyond  it  the  dark 
range  of  the  mountains  of  Judea.  Going  up  to 
the  village,  we  found  the  tower  to  belong  to  what 
was  once  a  Christian  church,  now  used  for  a 
school,  built,  as  was  manifest  from  its  architec 
ture,  in  the  time  of  the  Crusaders,  who  have  left 
the  tokens  of  their  occupation  scattered  through 
the  country.  Part  of  the  walls  had  fallen,  leaving 
the  building  open  on  one  side,  but  the  rest,  with 
its  pointed  arches,  was  in  perfect  preservation. 
There  was  nobody  in  or  about  the  building,  but 
the  space  within  had  been  carefully  and  neatly 
swept;  perhaps  it  had  served  as  a  school  that 
morning. 

Both  beyond  Zebna,  and  before  arriving  at  it, 
we  crossed  several  Saracenic  bridges  over  small 
streams,  vestiges  of  the  dominion  of  a  race  as 
energetic  as  the  Crusaders,  and  in  their  day,  per 
haps,  considerably  more  civilized.  Many  people 
passed  us,  who  greeted  us  kindly  with  the  Arabic 
word  for  "welcome,"  which  sometimes  broke 
from  their  lips  with  an  energy  that  startled  me ; 
but  the  good  impression  made  by  this  civility 


RAMLEH — A  TOWER.  1  7rJ 

was  counteracted  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
behaved  to  their  women.  It  is  women  who  carry 
the  burdens,  when  there  is  no  donkey  to  carry 
them ;  and  it  is  a  frequent  sight  in  Syria  to  see 
a  lazy  Arab  travelling  along  on  a  donkey,  with 
two  or  three  women  trotting  on  foot  beside  him. 
Our  journey  brought  us  to  the  top  of  an  emi 
nence,  on  the  slope  of  which,  eastward  of  where 
we  stood,  the  town  of  Ramleh  lay  before  us,  the 
centre  of  a  vast  circle  of  huge  old  olive-trees, 
amidst  which  grew  fields  of  luxuriant  barley.  A 
little  without  the  terrace,  in  the  midst  of  a  quad 
rangle  of  ruined  walls,  arches,  and  vaults,  two 
hundred  feet  square,  stands  a  lofty  tower  of 
white  marble  with  Saracenic  arches.  We  en 
tered  the  enclosure  at  its  principal  gate ;  a  row 
of  massive  piers  and  vaults,  partly  entire  and  in 
part  fallen,  stood  on  each  side  of  a  spacious 
court,  covered  with  fresh  herbage.  The  ground 
beneath  was  hollow  with  pits,  the  vaults  of 
which,  in  places,  had  fallen  in.  We  descended 
by  one  of  these  openings,  and  found  ourselves  in 
a  sort  of  crypt,  spacious,  and  with  lofty  pillars 
supporting  pointed  arches.  The  sides  of  this 
subterraneous  apartment  are  lined  with  a  smooth 


176  GUARDIAN   OF   THE   TOWEK. 

stucco,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  was  once  a 
reservoir  into  which  the  winter  rains  were  gath 
ered.  There  were  two  of  them,  one  on  the  south 
and  another  on  the  north  side  of  the  quadrangle. 
A  man  with  a  sabre  by  his  side  was  sitting  in 
the  shade  of  the  wall,  as  we  entered  the  court, 
engaged  in  the  usual  oriental  manner  of  passing 
time,  that  is  to  say,  smoking  a  long  pipe.  He 
rose  and  followed  us  when  we  went  into  the  vaults 
below  ;  and  when  we  came  out,  he  kept  near  us : 
he  was  probably  the  keeper  of  the  place.  We 
ascended  to  the  top  of  the  tower  by  its  narrow 
staircase ;  we  heard  his  steps  behind  us,  and 
while  we  looked  at  the  glorious  view  from  the 
summit,  he  seated  himself  near  us  and  smoked 
his  pipe  tranquilly  till  we  were  ready  to  go  down 
again.  The  atmosphere  was  beautifully  trans 
parent  ;  the  sea  was  in  sight  to  the  west ;  the 
mighty  range  of  rocks  which  forms  the  greater 
part  of  the  territory  of  Judea,  bounded  the  view 
on  the  east;  between  these  was  the  plain  of 
Sharon — green  and  fresh,  but  no  longer  famed  for 
its  roses;  still  nearer  lay  the  town  of  Ramleh, 
with  its  multitude  of  little  domes  forming  the 
house-tops,  and  just  under  our  feet  was  an  Arab 


A   LATIN   CONVENT.  177 

cemetery,  crowded  with  tombs  of  a  rude  ma 
sonry,  plastered  over  with  mortar  and  white 
washed. 

Our  dragoman,  in  the  mean  time,  had  pro 
ceeded  with  the  camels  and  the  baggage  to  the 
Latin  convent  in  Eamleh,  which,  on  descending 
from  the  tower,  we  had  some  difficulty  in  finding. 
We  wandered  about  in  the  outer  streets  of  the 
town  looking  for  it,  until  our  appearance  began 
to  attract  some  attention.  The  boys  shouted 
after  us,  and  two  of  our  party,  lingering  behind 
the  others,  were  complimented  with  a  volley  of 
small  stones,  for  which,  however,  the  young 
rogues  were  rebuked  by  an  elderly  Arab.  At 
length,  we  discovered  our  camels  in  a  little  en 
closure,  hedged  with  the  prickly  pear.  Close  at 
hand  was  the  convent,  to  which  we  were  admit 
ted,  and  in  which  we  found  our  rooms  already 
assigned  us.  "I  hope  you  like  them,"  said  the 
Superior,  a  Spaniard  of  prepossessing  physiog 
nomy  and  agreeable,  courteous  manners — "I 
hope  you  like  them ;  they  are  the  best  we  have." 

In  fact  we  had  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  ;  the 
day  had  been  hot,  and  the  coolness  of  our  cham 
bers  on  the  ground-floor,  vaulted  with  masonry, 


178  MOSQUITOES. 

was  very  agreeable.  Our  cook  had  his  conve 
nient  kitchen  near  us,  with  a  small  dining-room 
next  it,  and  our  attendants  were  provided  with  a 
spacious  dormitory.  The  Franciscan  convent  at 
Ramleh,  like  most  of  the  Latin  convents  in  the 
castle,  had  but  few  inmates — there  was  but  one 
friar  besides  the  Superior,  a  Spaniard  also,  and 
with  them  was  associated  an  Arab  lay -brother, 
who  had  lived  with  them  so  long  that  he  spoke 
Spanish  fluently.  The  convent  is  a  spacious 
building,  erected  round  three  or  four  different 
courts,  all  of  them  clean  and  silent.  They  told 
me  that  the  convent  was  poor,  which  I  thought 
not  unlikely.  While  the  bell  was  ringing  for  ves 
pers,  I  happened  to  be  in  the  main  court,  and 
looking  round  the  corner,  saw  the  gentlemanly 
Superior  pulling  the  rope  with  great  activity. 

Our  chambers  swarmed  with  mosquitoes,  bred 
in  the  numerous  cisterns  of  the  convent,  contain 
ing  rain-water,  some  of  which  were  yet  full  to  the 
brim,  and  open  to  the  air.  We  had  not  been  an 
hour  in  our  beds  before  we  wished  ourselves 
again  in  our  tents. 


PARTING  WITH  OUR  ARABS.  179 


LETTEE  XIV. 

Journey  1o  Jerusalem  continued. — We  take  our  leave  of  the  Arabs  and. 
their  camels. — Journey  on  horseback. — Queer  bridles  and  saddles. — 
A  janizary  of  the  American  Vice-Consul  at  Jerusalem.— His  long 
staff.— Entrance  upon  the  hill-country.— A  lunch  under  evergreen 
oaks.— Steep  ascent  by  a  bridle-path.— Sure-footed  horses.— Soil  full 
of  loose  stones.— Its  fertility.— First  sight  of  the  Holy  City.— The 
JafiSa  gate  of  the  city.— People  promenading  in  the  country.— Bearded 
priests.— Hotel  kept  by  a  Maltese.— Visit  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre. 

JERUSALEM,  PALESTINE,  February  22d,  1853. 
IN  the  morning  when  we  left  our  rooms,  we 
found  the  Arab  camel-drivers  preparing  to  return 
with  their  animals  to  their  little  town  on  the 
desert.  Their  journey  ended  here,  and  for  each 
camel  which  they  had  led  in  their  caravan  from 
Cairo  to  Ramleh,  the  compensation  to  the  dri 
vers  was  about  four  dollars,  to  say  nothing  of  a 
flogging  or  two  thrown  in,  to  sweeten  the  bar 
gain,  by  ,  our  free-handed  dragoman.  We  had 
been  so  long  together  in  the  solitude  through 
which  our  journey  lay,  that  we  had  conceived  a 
sort  of  friendship  for  these  people.  We  had 
found  them  respectful,  laborious,  and  always 
ready  with  their  services ;  and  we  now  took  leave 
of  Mohammed  and  Mohammed  AH  and  Achmed, 


180  JOURNEY   ON   HORSEBACK. 

and  the  two  others  whose  names  T  forget,  with 
something  like  regret.  The  poor  fellows  seemed 
half-sorry  to  part  with  us,  and  Mohammed,  the 
oldest  and  most  responsible  man  among  them, 
kissed  the  hands  that  were  offered  him  to  shake. 
Meantime,  a  gigantic  Syrian  had  brought  to 
the  convent-gate  a  troop  of  fifteen  horses  and 
mules,  with  which  to  perform  the  journey  from 
Eamleh  to  Jerusalem.  The  horses  were  equipped 
with  patched  bridles,  compounded  of  leather, 
worsted,  ribbon,  and  rope,  ragged  saddles,  and 
stirrups  of  various  patterns,  but  principally  of 
the  Turkish,  with  a  broad  plate  for  the  foot  to 
rest  upon.  A  janizary  of  the  American  Yice- 
Consul  at  Jerusalem,  on  his  way  home  from  Jaffa, 
had  heard  that  there  was  a  party  of  American 
travellers  at  the  convent,  and  had  come  to  offer 
us  his  company  and  protection  during  the  rest  of 
our  journey.  He  wore  a  sabre,  with  a  pair  of 
pistols  clumsily  stuck  in  his  sash,  after  the  fash 
ion  of  the  country,  and  carried  in  his  hand  a 
long  staff  with  a  large  silver  head,  the  symbol  of 
his  office.  We  put  into  the  hand  of  the  Arab 
lay-brother,  who  spoke  Spanish,  the  expected 
gratuity,  and  mounting  our  horses,  proceeded 


HILL-COUNTRY  OF  JUDEA.  181 

through  the  streets  of  the  town.  Before  us  rode 
the  janizary,  resting  his  long  staff  on  his  Turkish 
stirrup,  and  occasionally  wielding  it  to  poke  the 
people  aside  when  they  obstructed  the  way. 

Crossing  a  rich  plain,  we  entered  upon  a  hilly 
country  with  frequent  villages  on  the  heights,  and 
finally  followed  a  road  into  a  deep  ravine,  run 
ning  far  up  into  the  mountain-country  of  Judea. 
At  its  bottom  was  a  narrow  bridle-path,  choked 
with  loose  stones,  and  its  steep  sides  were  tufted 
with  evergreen  shrubs ;  on  the  right  hand  were 
olive-trees  planted  on  terraces  among  the  rocks, 
and  on  the  left  were  flocks  of  goats,  under  the 
care  of  keepers,  browsing  among  the  cliffs.  We 
made  our  mid-day  halt  at  a  spot  where  the  ra 
vine,  widening,  left  a  little  valley,  and  a  clump  of 
evergreen  oaks  made  a  pleasant  shade.  Close  at 
hand  were  the  ruins  of  an  old  building — our 
dragoman  called  it  a  mosque,  but  I  had  little 
doubt  it  was  once  a  khan,  and  that  the  spacious 
subterranean  chambers,  which  were  the  only  re 
markable  part  of  its  remains,  had  once  been  res 
ervoirs  of  rain-water. 

Out  of  this  ravine,  after  following  it  for  a  great 
distance,  we  climbed  into  an  extensive  plantation 
16 


182  BKIDLE-PATHS. 

of  olive-trees,  by  a  path  among  the  rocks,  so 
steep,  slippery,  and  obstructed  with  blocks  of 
stone,  that  the  attempt  to  travel  it  on  horseback 
seemed  to  me  scarcely  less  than  an  act  of  mad 
ness.  I  soon,  however,  perceived  that  there  was 
no  cause  of  fear.  The  horses  of  this  country, 
though  not  otherwise  a  fine  race,  are  wonderfully 
sure-footed,  and  pick  their  way  in  safety  up  and 
down  precipices  over  which  one  of  our  own  would 
infallibly  break  his  neck. 

We  had  a  tedious  journey  up  and  down  the 
bare  hills,  and  across  the  stony  valleys.  The  soil 
of  Judea  is  everywhere  full  of  loose  stones,  yet  it 
seemed  to  me,  from  such  examination  as  I  was 
able  to  give,  that  the  rocks  of  the  country  in  dis 
integrating,  resolve  themselves  into  a  rich  mould, 
which,  as  soon  as  it  is  touched  with  moisture, 
starts  into  fertility.  The  barrenness  that  pre 
vails  is  owing  to  the  want  of  water ;  wherever 
that  flows,  the  herbage  is  luxuriant,  rich  grasses 
spring  up,  and  abundant  harvests  are  reared. 

At  length,  after  crossing  a  bleak  table-land, 
where  the  soil  seemed  to  have  been  washed  away 
by  rains  from  the  spaces  between  projecting 
rocks,  we  came  in  sight  of  the  walls,  the  towers, 


THE   HOLY   CITY.  183 

and  the  domes  of  the  Holy  City.  The  ancient 
metropolis  of  Palestine,  the  once  imperial  Salem, 
had  not  lost  all  its  majesty,  but  still  sat  like  a 
queen  in  her  place  among  the  mountains  of  Ju- 
dea.  To  the  north  stretched  a  broad  grove  of 
olive-trees,  and  under  the  western  wall  the  green 
vale  of  Hinnom  wound,  deepening  as  it  extended 
to  the  south,  till  it  turned  eastward  to  join  the 
deeper  glen  of  the  Kedron  ;  and  eastward  of  the 
city  were  the  steeps  of  Mount  Olivet.  I  will  not 
attempt  the  description  of  a  place  described  so 
often,  nor  dwell  upon  the  reflections  which  arose 
in  my  mind  at  the  first  sight  of  that  spot  from 
which  the  light  of  that  religion  now  professed  by 
all  the  civilized  world,  dawned  upon  mankind, 
and  to  which  the  hearts  of  millions  in  every  zone 
of  the  globe  yet  turn  with  a  certain  reverence. 

"We  approached  the  city  by  the  road  leading  to 
the  Yafa  Gate,  which  at  that  hour — it  was  now 
nearly  five  o'clock — was  pouring  out  its  men  and 
women  to  enjoy  the  last  rays  of  a  most  pleasant 
sunshine.  Among  those  who  were  walking  into 
the  country  were  small  parties  of  young  men  in 
the  academical  garb  of  the  Colleges,  Armenian 
and  Greek  priests  in  their  flowing  black  robes, 


184  THE  HOLY  SEPULCHRE. 

and  Latin  priests  in  their  brown  gowns.  I 
thought  I  had  never  seen  so  fine  an  assortment 
of  beards  of  different  tinges  of  color,  as  those 
which  hung  from  those  reverend  chins.  "We  en 
tered  the  gates  without  being  asked  for  our  pass 
ports,  and  winding  through  narrow,  dirty  streets, 
and  vaulted  passages  under  houses  which  were 
built  directly  over  the  ways,  we  stopped  at  the 
door  of  the  Melita  Hotel,  close  to  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  kept  by  Antonio  Zanieni, 
one  of  that  race  which  is  found  everywhere  dis 
persed  through  the  East — the  Maltese.  We  were 
shown  into  clean,  comfortable  rooms,  after  taking 
possession  of  which,  we  went  to  the  church,  where 
Greek  mass  was  performing  and  the  devout  of 
the  Greek  communion  were  pressing  to  the 
place  of  the  sepulchre,  kneeling  before  it,  and 
kissing  the  sacred  stone  in  which  it  is  enclosed. 
That  evening,  as  the  day  was  closing  with  great 
splendor  of  light  and  color,  we  heard  the  muez 
zin,  from  a  minaret  rising  close  to  the  church, 
shouting  and  quavering  his  proclamation  of  the 
hour  of  prayer,  with  extraordinary  energy,  as  if 
he  protested  against  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
unbelief  surrounding  him  on  every  side.  Jeru 


RELIGIOUS  ENTHUSIASTS.  185 

salem  is  the  resort  of  enthusiasts  of  every  creed 
and  clinie; — Jews,  who  are  here  to  lament  the 
destruction  of  their  temple  and  wait  for  the  com 
ing  of  the  Messiah ;  pilgrims  and  devotees  of 
the  Greek  Church,  the  Latin  and  the  Armenian, 
and  religious  adventurers  from  America,  of  the 
Protestant  faith,  who  have  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  assist  in  preparing  for  the  return  of  the  Jews. 
Since  we  have  been  here  we  have  visited  most 
of  the  places  within  and  without  Jerusalem,  as 
sociated  by  history  or  tradition  with  important 
events.  We  have  just  now  returned  from  an  ex 
cursion  to  the  valley  of  Jordan  and  the  Dead 
Sea,  the  narrative  of  which  I  thought  to  have 
given  you.  This  letter,  however,  is  already  so 
long,  that  I  have  relinquished  the  design  of 
writing  out,  at  present,  my  notes  of  that  journey. 
I  have  executed  my  principal  purpose,  which  was 
to  give  an  account  of  our  passage  through  the 
desert  and  the  southern  part  of  Syria  to  Jeru 
salem. 


16* 


186  HARBOR   OF   SMYRNA. 


LETTER  XV. 

The  Lazaretto  at  Smyrna.— Beautiful  harbor.— Fleet  of  American  ships 
of  war  in  the  Levant. — Behavior  of  the  Arabs  to  the  Frank. — Relaxa 
tion  of  bigotry. — Mohammedan  prejudices. — No  Christian  converts 
from  Moslems. — Power  of  the  foreign  consuls. — Extravagant  preroga 
tives  of  the  American  consuls.— Hasty  appointments  to  consulships.— 
American  missionaries  at  Beyroot.— Dr.  Eli  Smith.— Mr.  Calhoun.— 
A  Druse  Emir.— Dr.  De  Forrest.— A  girls'  school.— Demand  for  edu 
cated  wives. 

SMYRNA,  ASIA  MINOR,  March  29th,  1853. 
THIS  letter  is  written  from  the  lazaretto  of 
Smyrna,  the  great  commercial  city  of  the  Turkish 
empire,  seated  on  the  borders  of  one  of  the 
finest  harbors  in  the  Levant.  Before  the  long, 
yellow  building  in  which  I  have  my  chamber, 
•spreads  a  broad  sheet  of  transparent  water,  re 
mote  from  the  agitations  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  apparently  surrounded  by  land  like  a  lake. 
It  is  sheltered  and  overlooked  in  part  by  lofty 
mountains,  with  masses  of  forest  on  their  sides, 
and  summits  of  bare  rock,  and  in  part  by  green 
hills,  up  one  of  which  the  city  has  been  climbing, 
of  late  years,  from  the  low  plain  on  the  southern 
shore.  Here  whole  navies  might  ride  in  safety, 
and  never  feel  the  storms  that  vex  the  open  sea. 
It  is  sometimes  asked  by  Americans,  why  it  is 


USE  OF  OUR  NAVY.  187 

that  our  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean  never 
makes  its  appearance  in  the  waters  of  this  excel 
lent  harbor.  The  design  of  maintaining  vessels 
of  war  in  this  quarter  of  the  world  is,  of  course, 
to  inspire  respect,  by  creating  an  impression  of 
our  power  to  assert  our  rights  against  encroach 
ment.  A  whole  fleet  of  frigates  anchored  at 
Port  Mahon  or  at  Spezzia,  would  not  have  this 
effect  in  a  much  greater  degree  than  if  they  were 
stationed  at  Brooklyn  or  Norfolk.  Nobody 
makes  a  voyage  to  Port  Mahon  to  admire  the 
strength  of  our  men-of-war,  their  capacity  for 
speed,  the  excellence  of  their  discipline,  or  the 
terrible  beauty  and  perfection  of  their  arrange 
ments  for  dealing  death  upon  our  enemies.  At 
Naples  they  are  already  so  familiar  a  sight  that 
their  appearance  does  nothing  to  strengthen  the 
impression  already  made.  Our  naval  officers,  at 
these  places,  interchange  civilities  with  the  peo 
ple  of  the  country,  give  balls  on  board  their 
vessels,  which  are  the  admiration  of  the  ladies, 
and  do  their  best  to  make  their  time  pass  agree 
ably.  But  if  the  Navy  Department  would  give  a 
little  attention  to  this  matter,  they  might  be  em 
ployed  to  somewhat  better  purpose. 


188  BOMBARDMENT  OF  ACRE. 

In  a  conversation  on  this  subject,  which  I  had 
with  the  American  consul  at  Beyroot,  he  said, 
"  In  the  event  of  any  controversy  arising  between 
me  and  the  Pasha  here,  it  would  be  far  more 
easily  settled  if  there  were  an  American  vessel  of 
war  in  the  harbor."  These  words  fully  express 
the  true  use  of  the  American  squadron  in  the 
Mediterranean.  The  authorities  of  a  barbarous 
country  and  an  arbitrary  government  naturally 
pay  as  little  attention  to  the  rights  of  foreigners 
as  to  the  rights  of  their  own  subjects,  unless  they 
find  themselves  forced  to  do  otherwise.  Let  a 
nation  bring  the  evidence  of  its  strength  and 
greatness  to  their  doors,  and  their  sense  of 
justice  is  surprisingly  quickened.  A  few  years 
since,  the  English  poured  a  storm  of  rockets  and 
bombs  upon  Acre — Akka,  as  they  now  generally 
call  it — and  battered  the  fortifications  and  the 
town  to  fragments.  Since  that  time  the  slightest 
complaint  of  the  representatives  of  the  English 
government  has  received  immediate  attention. 

There  is  not  a  port  of  any  consequence  in  the 
Levant  which  the  American  squadron  ought  not 
to  visit  in  its  turn.  Here,  at  the  principal  centre 
of  Turkish  commerce,  it  might  find  a  shelter  in 


THE   AMERICAN   CONSUL.  189 

the  most  inclement  season,  and  at  Beyroot,  the 
great  port  of  Syria,  with  which  our  commercial 
relations  are  acquiring  more  and  more  impor 
tance,  though  the  north  winds  in  winter  some 
times  render  the  anchorage  insecure,  they  would 
find  the  water  as  calm  as  a  lake  from  the  first  of 
April  to  the  first  of  November.  The  Turks  will 
never  be  convinced  of  our  power  to  exact  satis 
faction  for  injuries  by  what  they  read,  for  they 
never  read;  they  must  be  convinced  by  what 
they  see ;  and  it  is  the  proper  business  of  our 
navy  to  instruct  them  on  this  point.  The  sight 
of  our  superb  vessels,  riding  in  their  pride  and 
strength  upon  the  Turkish  waters,  would  make 
the  matter  clear  to  their  minds. 

When  our  present  consul  first  arrived  at  Bey- 
root,  the  Pasha  was  disposed  to  treat  him  as  he 
treated  the  consuls  of  the  minor  powers,  that  of 
Tuscany,  for  example :  he  neglected  to  return 
his  official  call,  a  point  of  etiquette  the  strict  ob 
servance  of  which  is  reserved  for  powers  of  the 
first  and  second  rank.  Our  consul  was  not  of  a 
temper  to  submit  to  this,  and  wrote  to  the 
Pasha  that  if  his  call  was  not  returned  without 
delay,  he  should  report  the  matter  to  the  govern- 


190  TURKISH  PREJUDICES. 

ment  of  the  Sultan  at  Constantinople.  This  had 
its  due  effect, — the  call  was  returned.  A  short 
time  afterward,  the  English  consul  at  Beyroot 
gave  an  official  dinner,  at  which  the  Pasha  and 
the  consuls  of  the  foreign  governments  were 
guests,  and  at  which  the  American  consul  was 
placed  next  to  himself.  A  new  light  seemed  to 
break  on  the  Pasha's  mind,  and  he  afterward 
treated  our  consul  with  great  consideration. 
But  it  is- not  fitting  that  the  respect  with  which 
our  country  is  regarded,  should  be  left  to  depend 
on  circumstances  like  these. 

In  the  behavior  of  the  people  of  this  country 
toward  the  Franks,  a  great  change  has  taken 
place  within  a  few  years.  The  ancient  bigotry 
of  the  Moslems  is  fast  relaxing.  Not  only  do  the 
Turks  get  drunk  like  Christians,  of  which  I  was 
sorry  to  see  some  examples  on  board  the  Aus 
trian  steamer  that  brought  me  hither  from  Bey- 
root,  but  they  submit  to  contact  with  the 
Christians,  and  do  not  think  themselves,  as  once 
they  did,  contaminated  by  it;  and  they  suffer 
our  presence  in  their  most  holy  places.  We  had 
on  board  of  our  steamer  a  distinguished  officer  of 
the  Turkish  empire,  Mohammed  Pasha,  the  mili- 


RELAXATION  OF  BIGOTRY.  191 

it 

tary  governor  of  Damascus,  a  seraskier.  There 
are  but  five  seraskiers  in  the  empire,  and  the 
office  is  equivalent  to  that  of  marshal  in  France. 
He  dined  with  us  occasionally,  and  his  son 
always. 

In  Cairo,  you  may  enter  any  of  their  mosques 
with  a  janizary,  when  the  faithful  are  not  at 
their  devotions ;  at  Beyroot  you  may  enter  them, 
if  you  will  only  take  off  your  shoes.  At  Da 
mascus,  the  idea  that  a  mosque  is  profaned  by  the 
entrance  of  a  Christian  is  still  entertained,  but 
even  there  the  old  fanaticism  is  giving  way. 
"  Ibrahim  Pasha  did  a  great  deal  of  good  when 
he  was  master  of  this  country,"  said  an  old  Jew 
waiter  at  the  Palmyra  Hotel  in  Damascus. 
"Before  he  came,  no  Frank,  no  Christian,  no 
Jew,  could  ride  on  horseback  through  the 
streets ;  the  Moslems  would  have  pulled  him 
down,  and  perhaps  torn  him  in  pieces.  He  was 
obliged  to  dismount  at  the  city  gate,  and  lead 
his  horse  through  the  streets.  Ibrahim  Pasha 
decreed  that  men  of  all  religions  should  have 
equal  privileges  in  the  community.  After  Ibra 
him  Pasha  was  driven  out,  the  English  used 
their  influence  to  keep  for  the  Franks  and  Chris- 


192  FATHER  CHARLES. 

•t 

tians  the  rights  he  had  granted  them,  and  we 
are  allowed  to  ride  on  horseback  still." 

This  thaw  of  prejudices  so  strong  and  so  long 
cherished,  this  disregard  of  the  precepts  of  the 
Koran,  encouraged  as  it  is  in  high  places,  is  very 
likely  to  become  far  more  general  in  the  next 
generation  than  it  now  is.  There  are  some  who 
think  they  see  in  it  a  sign  of  the  approaching 
day,  when  the  followers  of  Mohammed  will  have 
become  gradually  weaned  from  their  false  revela 
tion,  and  be  prepared  to  embrace  a  purer  re 
ligion.  There  are  others  who  imagine  that  this 
day  has  been  postponed  by  the  interference  of 
the  English  in  the  controversy  between  Ibrahim 
Pasha  and  the  Sultan.  I  was,  not  long  since,  at 
the  Latin  Convent  on  Mount  Carmel,  the  pro 
curator  of  which,  Father  Charles,  an  intelligent 
and  agreeable  man,  is  well  known  to  travellers 
in  Syria.  "It  was  a  great  mistake  of  the 
English  government,"  said  he,  "  that  it  took  the 
part  of  the  Sultan  against  Ibrahim  Pasha.  The 
English  fear  that  Russia  may  obtain  possession 
of  Constantinople.  It  was,  without  doubt,  the 
ultimate  design  of  Ibrahim,  to  seize  upon  the 
seat  of  the  Turkish  empire,  and  if  it  had  once 


THE  POLICY   OF   IBRAHIM   PASHA.  193 

fallen  into  the  hands  of  so  able  a  prince,  would 
have  given  England  the  barrier  against  the 
further  advances  of  Russia,  which  she  so  much 
desires.  But  beyond  all  this,  it  was  the  policy 
of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  as  it  was  that  of  Mohammed 
Ali,  his  father,  to  break  down  the  religious  preju 
dices  of  the  Mohammedans,  to  put  all  religions 
on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality,  to  adopt  Euro 
pean  institutions,  and  to  cause  the  Franks  to  be 
treated  with  courtesy  and  deference  wherever 
they  went.  In  this  way,  the  gates  of  the  East 
would  have  been  opened  to  civilization  and 
Christianity." 

Meantime,  I  would  not  have  you  suppose  that 
the  old  Mussulman  hatred  of  the  Franks,  though 
so  much  diminished,  is  extinct.  A  sense  of  de 
cency,  or  the  fear  of  the  bastinado,  often  restrains 
its  expression  in  grown  persons — for  the  foreign 
consuls,  when  an  insult  is  offered  to  an  indi 
vidual  of  their  nation,  have  the  means  of  subject 
ing  the  offender  to  exemplary  punishment — but 
it  breaks  out  in  the  behavior  of  children,  who 
feel  no  such  restraints.  I  cannot  say  that  I 
observed  anything  of  this  in  Egypt,  but  it  was 
apparent  enough  the  moment  we  entered  Syria. 
17 


194  MUSSULMAN  FANATICISM. 

As  we  passed  through  Khan  Yoonas,  the  frontier 
town — a  train  of  eight  persons  in  the  Frank  cos 
tume,  on  camels — we  were  saluted  by  the  boys 
and  young  girls  from  the  open  doors,  the  win 
dows,  and  the  house-tops,  with  shouts  and 
gestures  of  derision.  At  Eamleh,  a  village  one 
day's  journey  from  Jerusalem,  as  our  party  were 
walking  through  the  streets,  two  of  them,  linger 
ing  behind  the  rest,  were  followed  by  boys  who 
threw  stones  at  them,  until  they  were  stopped  by 
an  Arab  coming  out  of  his  house,  accosting  them 
in  an  angry  manner,  and  apparently  command 
ing  them  to  desist.  I  was  one  day  walking  near 
the  Mohammedan  cemetery,  just  without  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem.  It  was  Thursday,  the  day 
before  the  Mohammedan  Sabbath  ;  the  women 
were  praying  at  the  graves  of  their  friends.  Two 
children — beautiful  creatures  they  were — a  boy 
and  girl,  with  brilliant  eyes,  and  gayly  dressed, 
came  forward  from  one  of  the  graves,  where  two 
women  were  sitting,  and  sang,  with  great  glee 
and  spirit,  a  song  current  in  the  country,  com 
posed  in  ridicule  of  the  Franks.  At  the  entrance 
of  the  town  of  Nablous,  in  Samaria,  where  the 
women  and  children  were  assembled  in  hun- 


INSULTS  TO  THE  FRANKS.  195 

dreds,  in  their  holiday  dresses,  in  a  beautiful 
olive-grove,  the  little  stones  thrown  by  juvenile 
hands  rattled  about  us  like  hail,  and  we  were 
pursued  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  by  a  chorus  of 
shouts  and  songs,  till  we  were  fairly  within  the 
city  gates.  There  are  Protestant  missionaries 
from  America  at  Smyrna,  at  Beyroot,  at  Damas 
cus,  and  other  places,  but  they  depend  very 
much  on  the  American  consuls  for  protection. 
"  We  could  not  remain  in  Damascus,"  said  one 
of  them  to  me,  "  we  could  scarcely  maintain  our 
selves  here  for  a  day,  but  for  the  support  which 
is  given  to  our  rights  by  the  vice-consul." 

It  is  remarkable,  as  it  is  a  proof  of  the  almost 
ineradicable  nature  of  Mohammedan  prejudices 
against  the  Christians,  in  Syria,  that  the  mission 
aries  never  attempt  to  make  proselytes  from 
among  the  professors  of  Islamism ;  they  only 
seek  to  persuade  to  their  faith  those  that  belong 
to  the  Greek  Church,  or  those  who  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  It  is  well  under 
stood  that  if  a  Mohammedan  were  to  abjure 
his  creed,  and  embrace  Christianity,  his  life  would 
be  forfeited.  "  If  the  criminal  tribunals  did  not 
meddle  in  the  matter,"  said  our  vice-consul  at 


196  POWER  OF  THE  CONSULS. 

Damascus,  "  the  people  would,  and  we  should 
have  a  tumult  at  once.  There  was,  not  long 
since,  in  this  city,  a  Mohammedan  who  professed 
to  believe  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  who 
went  to  India,  promising  the  missionaries  to 
make  a  public  profession  of  his  faith  in  that 
country,  but  I  know  not  whether  he  did  so." 
The  missionaries,  it  seems,  do  not  insist  upon  the 
Moslems  becoming  candidates  for  the  crown  of 
martyrdom. 

The  foreign  consuls  in  the  Turkish  empire 
have  great  power,  under  the  laws  of  the  country, 
and  great  weight  with  the  government  of  the 
Sultan.  If  a  Pasha  or  Governor  of  a  province 
misbehaves  himself,  and  gives  them  just  cause  of 
complaint,  an  application  from  them  addressed 
to  the  Sultan  is  sure  to  procure  his  removal.  "  I 
can  commit  any  man  to  prison,  within  the  dis 
trict  for  which  I  am  consul,"  said  our  consul  at 
Beyroot  to  me, "  for  any  cause  whatever ;  and  it  is 
only  after  he  has  been  a  prisoner  for  three  days, 
that  the  Pasha  has  a  right  to  send  to  me  inqui 
ring  the  reason  of  his  detention." 

But  this  is  not  all.  A  law  passed  by  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  in  August,  1848,  makes 


LAW   OF   CONSULSHIPS.  197 

the  American  consuls  appointed  for  the  Turkish 
empire  judges  in  all  causes  of  a  criminal  nature, 
in  which  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  is  the  ac 
cused  party.  I  pray  you  to  look  at  the  statute, 
and  see  if  it  is  not  an  extraordinary  one.  The 
consul  is  both  the  judge  and  the  jury,  and  from 
his  sentence  there  is  no  appeal.  The  usages  of 
the  Turkish  empire,  and,  if  I  ani  not  mistaken, 
a  special  treaty  with  the  Porte,  sanction  the  ex 
ercise  of  this  power  on  the  part  of  the  consul. 
Mr.  Offley  is  the  American  consul  at  the  port  of 
Smyrna.  He  may  not  only  throw  me  and  the 
American  friends  who  are  with  me,  and  the  two 
Smyrniotes  who  came  on  with  us  from  Cairo,  and 
are  now  in  this  lazaretto,  into  prison  and  keep 
us  there  for  three  days,  on  no  accusation  at  all, 
but  he  may  hang  all  the  Americans  of  our  party 
to-morrow  morning,  without  allowing  us  a  mo 
ment's  delay,  or  any  opportunity  of  procuring 
the  revision  of  a  hasty  or  capricious  sentence. 
If  you  should  find  the  law  to  be  as  I  have  stated, 
I  hope  you  will  inquire  whether  it  ought  not  to 
be  immediately  amended. 

Powers  like   those  which  I  have  mentioned, 
ought  not  to  be  intrusted  to  any  but  the  most 
17* 


198  TJNWOKTHY  CONSULS. 

able  and  upright  men.  An  American  consul  in 
a  port  of  the  Turkish  empire  is  the  sultan  of  all 
the  American  citizens  who  are  within  his  dis 
trict;  he  holds  their  lives  and  liberties  in  his 
hands.  As  much  caution  ought  to  be  used  in 
selecting  competent  persons  for  the  post,  as  for 
that  of  the  most  important  judicial  office — the 
highest  conscientiousness  and  the  soundest  judg 
ment  are  not  qualities  too  exalted  for  it.  Yet  it 
is  sometimes  strangely  misbestowed. 

Not  long  since,  a  Prussian  subject,  who  was 
obliged  to  leave  Constantinople  for  some  misbe 
havior,  and  who  could  not  return  to  it  in  a  pri 
vate  capacity,  went  to  the  United  States,  and 
after  an  interview  with  Mr.  "Webster,  obtained 
from  Mr.  Fillmore  the  appointment  of  American 
consul  at  the  port  of  Constantinople.  He  arrived 
at  Syra,  in  Greece,  with  the  commission  in  his 
pocket,  and  was  waiting  for  an  American  vessel 
of  war  to  convey  him  to  his  place  of  destination, 
where  he  expected  to  make  a  sort  of  triumphal 
entry,  when  Mr.  Marsh,  our  minister  at  Constan 
tinople,  hearing  of  his  appointment,  wrote  in 
stantly  to  Mr.  Fillmore,  assuring  him  of  the  man's 
utter  unworthiness,  and  advising  that  his  com- 


MISSIONARIES  AT  BEYROOT.  199 

mission  should  be  immediately  revoked.  This 
was  done,  and  the  Prussian  received  notice  of 
his  dismissal  as  soon  as  it  could  be  forwarded  to 
him.  I  do  not  give  you  his  name,  because  I  am 
not  quite  sure  that  I  remember  it,  and  being  in 
the  lazaretto,  have  no  means  of  informing  myself 
by  inquiry,  but  you  may  perhaps  find  it  in  the 
list  of  recent  appointments ;  at  all  events  you 
shall  have  it  in  my  next,  after  I  am  let  out  of  this 
prison.  The  case  ought  to  be  put  on  record  as  a 
warning  against  hasty  appointments  to  office.  I 
can  hardly  suppose  that  the  office  was  bestowed, 
in  this  case,  with  any  distinct  recollection  of  its 
powers  and  responsibilities. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  American  missionaries  at 
Beyroot.  They  are  learned  and  laborious  men. 
One  of  them,  Dr.  Eli  Smith,  distinguished  as  an 
orientalist,  is  preparing,  with  the  help  of  a  well- 
educated  native,  a  new  Arabic  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  from  the  original  languages,  the  one 
now  used  being  from  the  Yulgate.  Mr.  Calhoun 
has  a  school  for  young  men,  at  Abeih,  on  the 
western  declivity  of  Lebanon,  in  which  a  regular 
course  of  four  years'  instruction  is  given,  ending 
with  some  of  the  higher  branches  of  mathemat- 


200  A  GIRLS'  SCHOOL. 

ics  and  chemistry.  All  tlie  pupils  learn  English, 
and  some  of  them  Greek.  They  are  twenty-two 
in  number,  and  one  of  them  is  a  Druse  Emir. 
Dr.  Deforest  has  at  Beyroot  a  girls'  school  of 
sixteen  pupils,  in  which  he  is  assisted  by  Mrs. 
Deforest.  I  was  present  at  a  part  of  the  annual 
examination  of  this  school.  The  girls  acquitted 
themselves  well  in  English  composition — and  the 
specimens  of  their  drawing  exhibited,  did  them 
great  credit.  They  are  clever  geographers,  I 
hear.  They  are  from  families  of  different  de 
nominations  of  Christians,  and  their  parents, 
brothers,  and  sisters  were  present,  their  faces 
shining  with  the  delight  they  felt  at  seeing  their 
little  friends  becoming  such  accomplished  schol 
ars.  The  girls  were  neatly  dressed ;  a  spencer, 
or  bodice,  of  printed  calico,  a  skirt  of  the  same 
material,  but  of  lighter  color,  and  a  tarboosh  or 
red  cap,  with  a  blue  tassel,  round  the  lower  part 
of  which  was  wound  a  gay-colored  handkerchief, 
were  the  principal  articles  of  their  costume. 
They  had  mostly  a  healthy  look,  fine  large  black 
eyes,  and  large  full  lips.  Some  of  them  had  a 
decidedly  Jewish  cast  of  countenance,  though 
there  were  no  Jewesses  among  them. 


EDUCATION  AT  BEYROOT.  201 

Both  these  schools  are  successful,  and  on  them 
depend,  I  should  suppose,  the  only  hopes  of  the 
mission  in  Syria.  The  school  for  girls  is  so  much 
in  favor,  that  more  persons  apply  for  admission 
than  can  be  received.  As  soon  as  the  education 
of  one  of  these  girls  is  completed,  her  hand  is 
immediately  sought  in  marriage  by  some  wealthy 
suitor.  An  impulse  has  been  given  to  female 
education  which  is  likely  to  spread  over  the  whole 
country,  and  as  mothers  have,  far  more  than 
fathers,  the  forming  of  the  minds  and  dispo 
sitions  of  their  children,  may  entirely  change  the 
character  of  the  population,  almost  before  the 
world  is  aware  of  the  means  by  which  the  change 
is  effected.  The  demand  for  female  education 
has  induced  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  a  Catholic 
order,  to  found  a  rival  school,  which  I  hear  is 
largely  attended. 


202  LORD  STRATFORD. 


LETTER  XVI. 

Constantinople.— Foreign  relations  of  Turkey.— Arrival  of  Lord  Strat 
ford. — Feebleness  of  the  Turkish  government. — Corruption  and  public 
plunder.— Banditti  at  Smyrna. —Their  robberies.— Their  cruelties.— 
The  Chiefs  of  the  Banditti.— A  Druse  robber  caught  and  caged.— The 
Druse  population.— The  Sultan.— His  palace.— His  Pashas.— Turkey 
held  together  by  pressure  without. 

CONSTANTINOPLE,  April  llth,  1853. 

THE  echoes  of  the  Bosphoras  and  the  Golden 
Horn — and  they  are  very  fine  echoes — were 
awakened  on  the  morning  after  my  arrival  at 
Constantinople,  by  a  salute  fired  in  honor  of  the 
arrival  of  Lord  Stratford,  the  British  Ambassa 
dor.  It  was  quite  time  for  him  to  be  at  his  post, 
for  the  Russian  government  seemed  on  the  point 
of  bringing  over  the  Sultan  to  its  projects. 
What  they  were,  I  have  learned  from  good 
authority,  but  perhaps  before  this  letter  reaches 
your  hands  you  may  have  the  information  from 
some  other  quarter.  Meantime,  I  give  it  to  you, 
as  nearly  as  I  can,  in  the  words  in  which  I 
received  it. 

"The  Russian  government  has  pretended  to 
interest  itself  very  much  in  the  dispute  between 
the  Greek  and  the  Latin  Church  respecting  the 


PROJECTS  OF  RUSSIA.  203 

possession  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  other 
sanctuaries  in  Palestine.  It  has  also  professed 
a  strong  desire  to  be  recognized  by  the  Sultan 
as  a  kind  of  protector  of  the  Greek  Christians 
within  his  dominions.  These,  however,  were  the 
public  pretexts  of  a  deeper  design.  Eussia  was 
in  reality  laboring  to  engage  the  Turkish  govern 
ment  in  a  triple  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive, 
in  favor  of  the  principle  of  absolutism,  with 
Austria  for  the  third  power.  By  means  of  this, 
it  was  hoped  to  mould  the  policy  of  the  Porte  to 
a  perfect  conformity  with  that  of  Eussia,  and  to 
make  it  in  effect  a  Eussian  province.  You  know 
that  Turkey  has  been  a  place  of  refuge  to  the 
liberals  of  Europe  from  the  persecution  of  the 
absolute  governments;  you  know,  too,  that  in 
Turkey  perfect  freedom  of  opinion  concerning 
questions  of  European  politics  is  allowed.  This 
was  to  be  so  no  longer,  if  the  scheme  of  Eussia 
could  be  carried  into  effect. 

"The  Sultan  was  not  much  inclined  to  the 
proposed  alliance ;  the  Grand  Vizier  was  deci 
dedly  against  it;  but  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  who  had  resided  in  western  Europe,  was 
as  strongly  in  its  favor.  Pressed  by  his  minister 


204  INTERVENTION  OF  FRANCE. 

on  one  side,  and  the  Russian  embassy  on  the 
other,  to  make  common  cause  with  the  two  great 
absolute  powers  of  Europe  against  the  enemies 
of  monarchy  in  its  purity,  there  was  danger  that 
the  Sultan  would  give  way. 

"  Since  the  arrival  of  Lord  Stratford,  affairs 
wear  a  new  face.  The  project  of  a  triple  alli 
ance  is  now  given  up,  and  the  negotiations  on 
the  part  of  Eussia  have  fallen  back  upon  minor 
questions.  In  resisting  this  project,  the  French 
government  has  been  quite  as  decided  and  active 
as  that  of  Great  Britain,  inasmuch  as  Franco 
has,  or  imagines  she  has,  the  same  interest  in 
preventing  Eussia  from  aggrandizing  herself  in 
the  East." 

In  this  account  of  the  matter  we  have  an  ex 
planation  of  the  ordering  of  the  French  fleet  to 
the  waters  of  Turkey,  the  haste  with  which  the 
British  government  despatched  Lord  Stratford 
to  Constantinople,  and  the  reported  sailing — I  do 
not  yet  know  whether  the  report  be  true,  but 
suppose  it  must  be — of  the  British  squadron  at 
Malta  for  the  Levant.  The  history  of  the  affair 
illustrates  in  a  remarkable  manner  both  the 
weakness  of  the  Turkish  empire  and  the  skill  of 


FEEBLENESS  OF   TURKEY.  205 

Eussian  diplomacy.  The  foreign  policy  of  the 
Porte  does  not  depend  upon  its  own  views  or 
inclinations,  but  on  the  accidental  influence 
which  any  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe  obtain 
over  it.  The  Kussian  negotiators  arje  the  ablest 
and  wiliest  of  Europe.  Now,  when  they  are  just 
on  the  point  of  becoming  by  superior  dexterity 
winners  in  the  Turkish  question,  England  tosses 
a  sword  upon  the  chess-board,  and  breaks  up  the 
game. 

The  Turkish  government  is  as  feeble  in  its 
administration  at  home,  as  it  is  in  its  dealings 
with  other  powers — feeble  to  enforce  its  own 
authority,  feeble  to  preserve  order,  feeble  to  ex 
ecute  any  work  of  public  importance. 

"  The  people  who  surround  the  Pasha,"  said 
an  American,  long  a  resident  at  Constantinople, 
"  are  the  most  rapacious  and  shameless  of  plun 
derers.  No  project  on  which  money  is  to  be 
spent  can  be  set  on  foot,  which  they  will  not  con 
trive  the  means  of  making  an  occasion  of  un 
bounded  pillage.  Not  long  since  a  road  was  laid 
out  from  this  city  to  Adrianople  and  a  large  sum 
of  money  was  raised  for  the  purpose,  enough,  as 
was  estimated,  to  complete  it.  Ten  miles  of  the 
18 


206  CORRUPTION— BANDITTI.  . 

road  was  made,  and  the  money  was  gone.  It 
was  computed  that  if  the  rest  of  the  road  were 
to  be  constructed  at  the  same  rate,  it  would 
bring  the  empire  to  bankruptcy,  and  the  project 
was  accordingly  abandoned.  Every  public  work 
is  as  wastefully.  man  aged." 

While  at  Smyrna,  the  other  day,  I  heard  many 
accounts  of  robberies  committed  by  banditti  who 
have  their  haunts  in  the  neighboring  mountains. 
The  city  is  fairly  invested  by  them  ;  and  no  man 
whose  life  is  worth  the  ransom  of  a  thousand 
piastres,  ventures  to  trust  himself  at  any  con 
siderable  distance  from  the  city,  or  to  inhabit 
any  of  the  neighboring  villages,  except  that  of 
Boornabat,  on  the  plain  of  Smyrna.  Yet  in 
these  villages  many  merchants  still  possess 
country-houses  and  gardens,  grateful  and  pleas 
ant  retreats,  where  they  once  lived  with  their 
families  a  part  of  the  year,  when  the  heat  made 
Smyrna,  a  closely-built  city  with  very  narrow 
and  very  dirty  streets  and  not  a  single  open 
square  or  public  promenade,  disagreeable  and 

s 

unwholesome.  At  present,  they  never  visit 
them.  Smyrna  is  now  a  sort  of  prison  watched 
by  a  guard  of  robbers.  About  two  years  ago 


ROBBERIES.  207 

they  seized  Mr.  Van  Lennep,  a  respectable 
merchant  of  Smyrna,  who  was  walking  out  with 
two  of  his  children.  They  demanded  a  hundred 
thousand  piastres  for  his  ransom ;  which  was 
negotiated  down  to  fifty  thousand — about  twenty 
thousand  dollars — on  the  payment  of  which,  he 
was  allowed  to  return  home.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  of  their  recent  captures  was  that  of 
a  Frenchman,  the  proprietor  of  a  silk  factory, 
who  a  short  time  since  was  by  some  means  de 
coyed  to  a  village  not  far  from  the  city,  seized, 
and  released  on  the  payment  of  thirty  thousand 
piasters — about  twelve  thousand  dollars.  "He 
deserved  his  fate,"  said  a  Smyrniote,  who  acted 
as  our  guide  through  the  city.  "  He  had 
seduced  several  young  women  employed  in  his 
factory,  and  the  people  of  Smyrna  all  say  that 
the  robbers  served  him  right." 

A  lady,  a  native  of  the  East,  who  had  lived 
many  years  in  Smyrna,  related  to  me  an  incident 
which  shows  how  little  regard  this  community  of 
robbers  have  for  human  life.  "A  young  man  of 
Smyrna,  a  Christian,  had  fallen  in  love  with  a 
Turkish  girl,  and  eloping  with  her,  sought  refuge 
with  the  banditti,  among  the  mountains.  They 


208  ANECDOTES   OF   THE   ROBBERS. 

gave  him  shelter,  and  urged  him  to  become  one 
of  them,  but  he  declined,  hoping  yet  to  escape  to 
Greece  or  some  of  its  islands,  where  to  have  run 
away  with  a  Moslem  would  not  be  punishable  as 
a  crime.  One  day  the  chief  of  the  troop  renewed 
his  instances,  which  were  again  firmly  rejected. 
The  chief  drew  one  of  his  pistols,  aimed  it  at 
the  young  woman,  shot  her  dead  on  the  spot,  and 
turning  again  to  her  lover,  said  to  him,  '  Now 
you  are  ours.'  Since  that  time  the  young  man 
has  been  a  robber.  He  knew  that  if  he  returned 
to  society,  the  blood  of  the  Turkish  girl  would  be 
required  at  his  hands." 

The  present  chief  of  the  banditti  is  one  who, 
amidst  the  atrocities  he  is  committing,  has  shown 
himself  capable  of  generous  actions.  On  one  oc 
casion,  hearing  that  a  member  of  a  family  in 
which  he  had  been  a  servant  was  in  some  pecuni 
ary  embarrassment,  he  made  his  appearance  and 
offered  him  the  means  of  extricating  his  affairs, 
which,  however,  were  not  accepted.  He  resolutely 
withheld  his  companions  from  committing  any 
robbery  or  act  of  wrong  on  Franks  or  Christians. 
"  The  Turks,"  he  said,  "  are  our  tyrants  and  op 
pressors,  and  in  plundering  the  Turks  we  perform 


A  DRUSE   ROBBER.  209 

an  act  of  justice;  but  let  us  spare  the  Christians, 
who  have  never  done  us  harm." 

Some  time  since  this  man  was  taken  and  car 
ried  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  long  de 
tained  a  prisoner.  During  his  confinement,  the 
troop  broke  through  the  rules  he  had  laid  down, 
and  robbed  Franks,  Christians,  and  Turks  indis 
criminately.  "  He  is  now  at  large,"  said  the  per 
son  who  gave  me  this  account,  "  and  I  hear  that 
in  returning  to  his  companions  he  manifested 
great  indignation  at  their  conduct  during  his  ab 
sence." 

I  expressed  my  astonishment  that  the  Turkish 
government,  having  had  him  once  in  their  hands, 
should  have  allowed  him  to  be  again  at  liberty. 

"  He  bribed  high,"  was  the  reply  ;  "  that  is  the 
way  we  explain  such  things  in 'this  country." 

When  I  was  waiting  at  Beyroot,  about  four 
weeks  since,  for  the  Austrian  steamer  to  bring 
me  to  Smyrna,  I  heard  that  a  Druse  chief,  a  pris 
oner  of  the  government,  had  been  exposed  at  the 
barracks,  without  the  city,  chained  to  a  post, 
with  his  hands  tied  behind  him.  On  inquiry,  I 
learned  it  was  a  Mohammed  Daoud,  a  noted  rob 
ber,  who,  for  some  time  past,  with  a  band  of  fol- 
13* 


210  HIS  AUDACITY. 

lowers,  has  infested  the  road  over  Mount  Leba 
non,  between  Beyroot  and  Damascus,  and  com 
mitted  many  robberies  and  murders.  They  relate 
of  him,  that  a  man  having  a  wife  whom  he 
coveted,  he  entered  his  house  by  night,  slew  the 
husband,  and  carried  off  the  woman  to  his  retreat 
in  the  mountains. 

Mohammed  Daoud  was  one  of  the  boldest  -vil 
lains  of  his  class.  He  wrote  to  the  Turkish  au 
thorities  enumerating  the  robberies  and  assassi 
nations  of  which  he  had  been  guilty,  and  added : 
"  You  do  not  know  by  whom  these  things  were 
done.  I  am  the  man — Mohammed  Daoud ;  they 
were  done  by  my  hand  or  by  my  order.  Take 
me  if  you  can."  The  government  had  made  va 
rious  attempts  to  seize  his  person,  but  without 
success,  until  at  length  a  Druse  family  named 
Joubelat,  possessing  high  rank  and  great  influ 
ence  among  their  people,  engaged  to  apprehend 
him  and  deliver  him  up.  They  watched  his 
movements,  and  rinding  him  at  a  convent,  entered 
the  room  where  he  was  dining.  He  asked  them 
if  they  came  in  peace,  and  being  told  that  they 
did,  allowed  them  to  approach  him,  and  found 
himself  their  prisoner.  He  now  complains  that 


THE    DKUSES.  211 

he  was  taken  by  treachery.  He  is  to  be  taken  to 
Constantinople,  and  if  he  has  the  means  of  pay 
ing  a  heavy  bribe,  I  shall  not  be  surprised  to  hear 
that  he,  like  the  robber-chief  from  Smyrna,  is 
again  at  liberty,  hovering  about  the  road  from 
Beyroot  to  Damascus. 

"While  I  am  speaking  of  the  Druses,  I  will  add 
a  word  concerning  those  who  inhabit  the  country 
to  the  south  of  Damascus,  and  their  quarrel  with 
the  Turkish  government. 

These  people  possess  a  region,  the  passes  to 
which  among  the  mountains  are  easily  defended 
by  a  few  men.  It  is  the  rule  of  the  Turkish  em 
pire  to  allow  none  to  become  soldiers  in  its  ar 
mies  who  are  not  Mussulmen.  The  Mohamme 
dans  are  subject  to  a  conscription ;  the  Chris 
tians,  instead  of  this,  pay  a  tax.  The  Turkish 
government  says  to  the  Druses,  "  We  consider 
you  as  Mohammedans,  and  require  of  you  a  cer 
tain  number  of  soldiers  proportioned  to  your 
population."  The  Druses  of  Lebanon  and  Anti- 
Lebanon  submit  to  the  demand,  but  the  Druses 
to  the  south  of  Damascus  say,  "  We  will  pay  a 
tax,  but  we  will  give  you  no  soldiers." 

For  the  present — for  this  year  at  least — the 


212  THE  SULTAN. 

quarrel  has  been  compromised.  In  February  the 
Druses  said  to  the  Turkish  government :  "  We 
want  time  to  attend  to  our  crops  :  receive  the 
value  of  a  thousand  yoke  of  oxen,  and  withdraw 
your  troops  the  present  year."  The  government, 
thinking  it  better  to  take  the  tribute  than  to  get 
neither  tribute  nor  conscripts,  agreed  to  the  post 
ponement  of  the  quarrel,  accepted  the  conditions, 
and  recalled  their  troops.  The  dispute  mean 
time  stands  good  for  another  season ;  it  will  be 
duly  renewed,  and  the  roads  in  that  quarter  will 
again  become  unsafe.  It  is  possible  that  if  the 
controversy  is  ever  settled  the  Druses  will  make 
their  own  terms. 

Last  Friday — three  days  since — I  saw  the  man 
who  is  the  nominal  head  of  that  ill-compacted 
and  scarcely  cohering  empire,  once  held  in  rig 
orous  obedience  by  fierce  and  mighty  monarchs, 
whose  names  were  the  dread  of  Christendom. 
From  a  wooden  palace  immediately  on  the  Bos- 
phorus — a  finer  is  building  for  him,  of  marble,  and 
of  florid  Palladian  architecture — he  rode  forth, 
on  a  handsome  black  horse,  a  pale,  slender  man, 
dressed  in  a  blue  frock  and  pantaloons,  wearing 
the  tarboosh  or  red  cap,  which  here,  with  the 


•WEAKNESS  OF   THE  EMPIRE.  213 

French,  has  taken  the  place  both  of  the  hat  and 
the  turban.  Before  him  rode  his  Pashas,  his 
high  officers  of  state  and  war,  the  men  who  dis 
pose  of  the  money  that  comes  into  his  treasury — 
stout  men,  for  the  most  part,  with  tolerably  florid 
complexions.  They  were  dressed  in  the  same 
garb  with  himself.  The  enormous  turbans  and 
barbaric  robes  which  officers  of  this  class  wore 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  are  now  only  to 
be  found  in  the  Museum  of  Ancient  Costumes, 
established  by  this  Sultan's  father  in  the  Atmei- 
dan  or  Hippodrome.  As  Sultan  Abdool  Mecljid 
rode  leisurely  along,  women  who  were  standing 
in  groups  beside  the  way  reached  forth  petitions 
wrapped  in  green  silk,  which  were  taken  by  some 
person  belonging  to  the  Sultan's  train,  and 
handed  to  an  officer  on  horseback,  carrying  a 
box,  in  which  they  were  deposited.  It  is  said 
that  the  Sultan  is  always  careful  to  read  them. 
He  is  represented  as  a  man  of  mild,  amiable  dis 
position,  who  would  be  glad  to  govern  his  em 
pire  better  than  he  does,  if  he  only  knew  how, 
or  if  those  who  surround  him  would  only  let  him. 
The  different  parts  of  the  Turkish  empire  are 
now  held  together  by  the  pressure  applied  to 


214  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 

them  from  without.  There  are  many  who  think 
it  better  that  this  should  be  so,  than  that  its  dif 
ferent  provinces  should  be  distributed  among 
the  powers  of  Christendom.  For  the  interests 
of  religious  liberty  it  is  most  certainly  better. 
The  Mussulman  government  interferes  less  with 
liberty  of  public  worship  than  most  of  the  gov 
ernments  of  Christian  empires.  To  what  degree 
civil  and  political  liberty  may  yet  be  developed 
from  amidst  the  elements  now  in  effervescence 
in  the  Turkish  empire,  I  will  not  undertake  to 
conjecture,  but  I  would  as  soon  take  my  chance 
of  freedom  in  Turkey  as  in  most  of  the  countries 
east  of  the  British  Channel. 


VIEW  FROM  BULGOULU.  215 


LETTEK  XVII. 

Beautiful  view  from  the  hill  of  Bulgoulu,  near  Constantinople.— 
Athens.— Corfu.— Glorious  view  from  the  Goruno.— Noble  remains 
of  ancient  architecture  at  Athens.— Modern  Greeks.— Their  schools.— 
Their  readiness  to  learn. — Syra. — The  American  consul. — Evange- 
lides.— Dr.  Hill's  school. — Young  ladies  reading  Homer  in  the  origi 
nal. — Dr.  Jonas  King,  the  orientalist. — His  controversy. — His  cour 
age.— Anecdote  of  the  American  flag.—General  dissatisfaction  with 
the  Greek  government.— Corruption  of  public  men. 

Austrian  steamer  Imperative,  on  the  ADRIATIC, 
between  CORFU  and  TRIESTE,  April  26, 1853. 

THOUGH  my  visit  to  Greece  has  been  a  short 
one,  I  ought  not  to  pass  through  so  interesting 
a  country  without  giving  you  a  few  notes  of  what 
I  have  seen  and  heard. 

"Within  a  few  days  past  I  have  seen  three  of 
the  most  beautiful  views  in  the  world,  all  of  them 
of  different  character.  Just  before  leaving  Con 
stantinople,  I  made,  with  my  companions,  an 
excursion  up  the  Bosphorus,  the  shores  of  which 
were  noisy  with  the  beginning  of  the  mackerel 
fishery — people  dragging  full  nets  to  land,  with 
eager  shouts,  and  men,  women,  and  children, 
from  the  interior,  hastening  to  the  shore  that 
they  might  secure  their  share. 

In    returning    we    stopped    at   Scutari,   took 


2W  ATHENS. 

horses  and  galloped  to  the  hill  of  Bulgoulu.  As 
we  ascended,  the  prospect  opened  upon  us  with 
new  beauty  at  every  step,  until  at  last  we  stood 
on  the  summit  in  the  midst  of  a  scene  of  incon 
ceivable  magnificence  and  splendor.  All  Con 
stantinople  was  at  our  feet,  with  its  domes  and 
sky-piercing  minarets,  dark  masses  of  cypress, 
bright  green  fields,  and  blooming  gardens,  its 
shining  waters  sprinkled  with  sails,  the  winding 
Bosphorus,  the  Golden  Horn,  and  the  Sea  of 
Marmora  and  its  lofty  islands  ;  to  the  eastward, 
a  country  of  cultivated  fields  and  villages,  and 
scattered  dwellings;  and  to  the  south,  rising 
above  ranges  of  distant  mountains,  the  summits 
of  the  Asiatic  Olympus,  white  with  snow.  It 
was  a  scene,  half  the  effect  of  which  was  owing 
to  the  extraordinary  brilliancy  and  variety  of  the 
coloring. 

In  a  few  days  afterward  I  was  at  Athens.  I 
could  not  but  acknowledge  the  beauty  of  the 
scenery  which  surrounds  the  city,  but  I  missed 
something  at  first,  which  seemed  necessary  to  its 
proper  effect.  The  country,  as  some  traveller 
says,  is  of  the  color  of  withered  herbage.  The 
soil,  which  is  far  from  fertile,  is  almost  white, 


CORFU.  217 

and  everywhere  shows  itself  through  the  meager 
vegetation.  The  more,  however,  I  looked,  the 
more  I  admired — so  varied  and  so  harmonious 
were  the  outlines  of  the  surrounding  mountains. 
"  The  beauty  of  the  place  grows  upon  you,"  said 
one  who  had  long  lived  at  Athens,  and  I  felt  the 
truth  of  the  remark  every  time  I  went  out.  In 
the  aspect  of  nature  here,  there  is  that  grand 
and  severe  repose,  which,  whether  observed  in 
the  works  of  art  or  those  of  nature,  makes  the 
deepest  and  most  durable  impression  on  the 
mind. 

We  left  Athens,  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth, 
and  took  a  steamer  for  the  island  of  Corfu,  the 
ancient  Corcyra,  a  fertile  and  beautiful  spot,  its 
valleys  and  declivities  shaded  with  old  olive-trees, 
and  gay,  at  this  season,  with  innumerable 
flowers.  "You  should  see  the  view  from 
Goruno,"  said  an  English  gentleman  whom  we 
met  at  our  hotel.  "Stanfield,  the  landscape- 
painter,  declared  it  was  the  finest  he  had  ever 
seen  in  any  part  of  the  world."  We  drove  to 
Goruiio  and  saw  what  might  almost  deserve  the 
praise  he  gave  it.  Here  was  every  element  of 
the  picturesque,  both  in  color  and  form — moun- 
19 


218  VIEW  FROM  GOEUNO. 

tain  peaks,  precipices,  transparent  bays,  woods, 
valleys  of  the  deepest  verdure*  and  pinnacles  of 
rock  rising  near  the  shore  from  the  pellucid  blue 
of  the  sea. 

The  remains  of  ancient  art,  which  are  to  be 
seen  at  Athens,  have  the  character  of  the  sur 
rounding  scenery — repose  and  harmony.  Of  all 
that  antiquity  has  left  us  in  the  way  of  architec 
ture,  they  are  the  only  ones  which  fill  and  satisfy 
the  mind.  Here  is  nothing  too  large  or  too 
little,  no  subordination  of  the  whole  to  the  parts 
— all  is  noble,  symmetrical,  simple  ;  there  is  not 
a  grace  that  does  not  seem  to  arise  naturally  out 
of  the  general  design.  It  is  wonderful  how  time 
has  spared  them.  They  are  mutilated,  defaced, 
and  in  great  part  overthrown,  yet  the  marble,  in 
many  places,  is  as  white  as  when  it  was  hewn 
from  the  quarries  of  the  Pentelicum  Mount,  and 
the  outlines  as  sharp  and  clear  as  when  the 
chisel  had  just  finished  its  task. 

All  this  destruction  is  the  work  of  man,  and 
but  for  human  wickedness  and  folly  the  temples 
of  the  Acropolis  would  now  be  in  almost  as  per 
fect  a  state  as  when  Paul,  in  passing  by,  beheld 
the  altar  erected  to  the  Unknown  God. 


SCHOOLS  OF  GEEECE.  219 

In  looking  at  these  remains,  one  can  hardly 
help  asking  himself  whether  the  Greeks  of  that 
early  age,  which  produced  works  of  art  wearing 
such  a  stamp  of  calm  greatness  and  employing 
such  a  fine  harmony  of  the  intellectual  faculties, 
were  not  of  a  different  character  from  the  Greeks 
of  the  present  day.  The  modern  Greeks  are  not 
wanting  in  capacity ;  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
exceedingly  clever  and  ingenious,  but  they  are 
restless  and  mercurial  beyond  almost  any  other 
family  of  mankind. 

The  schools  of  Greece  are  now  flourishing,  and 
crowded  with  pupils,  whose  parents  deny  them 
selves  the  necessaries  of  life  that  their  children 
may  be  educated.  We  shall  see  in  the  next  gen 
eration  what  are  the  influences  of  a  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge  upon  a  national  character 
so  volatile. 

On  our  voyage  from  Constantinople  to  Athens, 
the  steamer  stopped  for  some  time  in  the  port  of 
Syra,  where  we  began  a  quarantine  of  twenty- 
four  hours.  I  wrote  a  note  to  the  American 
consul,  Mr.  Evangelides,  a  Macedonian  by  birth, 
educated  in  America,  who  came  alongside  of  our 
steamer,  and  with  whom  we  had  a  most  interest- 


220  THIRST  FOR  KNOWLEDGE. 

ing  conversation.  "I  am  satisfied,"  said  he, 
"  with  regard  to  Greece.  Her  people  are  mak 
ing  the  greatest  sacrifices  to  acquire  knowledge, 
and  when  this  is  the  case,  I .  expect  everything. 
You  see  our  town  :  those  houses  on  the  conical 
hill  are  Syra  proper,  those  which  cover  the 
shore  at  its  base  form  another  city  called  Her- 
mopolis.  The  place  was  a  little  village  in  the 
time  of  the  Greek  revolution ;  it  has  now  a  popu 
lation  of  twenty  thousand.  Of  these,  three 
thousand  are  pupils  in  the  different  schools.  In 
my  own  school  are  thirty-one  boarders,  of  whom 
seventeen  pay  for  their  board  and  instruction ; 
the  rest  are  poor  boys.  In  twenty  years  it  will 
be  hardly  possible  to  find  a  Greek  who  cannot 
read." 

Syra,  you  know,  is  but  a  little  island  on  the 
Greek  coast,  and  the  city  which  bears  that  name 
owes  its  prosperity  to  its  schools,  which  make  it 
a  place  of  resort  not  only  from  Greece,  but  from 
all  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,  where  the  Greek 
race  is  found. 

While  at  Athens,  we  visited  the  school  in  Dr. 
Hill's  house,  of  which  his  lady  was  the  founder, 
and  had  the  principal  management.  The  num- 


APTNESS  TO   LEARN. 


ber  of  pupils  is  about  three  hundred.  We  were 
conducted  through  the  different  rooms  by  a  Greek 
lady,  educated  at  the  school,  who  spoke  English 
with  great  neatness,  as  well  as  fluency,  and  with 
just  enough  of  a  foreign  accent  to  remind  us  that 
it  was  not  her  native  language.  The  first  de 
partment,  or  infant  school  as  it  is  called,  con 
tained,  I  should  think,  fifty  or  sixty  children  of 
remarkably  intelligent  physiognomy.  "These 
little  creatures,"  said  the  Greek  lady,  "sometimes 
neglect  their  work,  but  never  their  lessons." 
They  were  taught,  as  were  all  the  other  classes, 
by  assistants,  who,  with  one  exception,  were  edu 
cated  in  the  school.  Another  department  was 
called  the  ragged  school,  in  which  were  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  girls  distributed  in  different 
rooms.  They  were  all  children  of  the  very  poor 
est  class,  who  were  here  taught  reading,  writing, 
mental  arithmetic,  needlework,  etc.  They  were  all 
of  Greek  families,  with  the  exception  of  three 
German  children,  whom  I  distinguished  from  the 
rest  at  a  glance  by  their  fair  complexions  and 
quiet  physiognomies. 

In  another  part  of  the  school  were  the  children 
of  persons  in  better  circumstances,  who  were 
19* 


222  GREEK  YOUNG  LADIES. 

taught  grammar,  geography,  English,  and  An 
cient  Greek.  They  rose  as  we  entered,  and,  led 
by  their  teacher,  a  young  lady,  a  native  of  Greece, 
sang  a  little  hymn  in  English.  In  a  yet  higher 
class  of  young  ladies,  numbering  about  twenty, 
the  studies  are  advanced  to  drawing,  algebra,  and. 
other  higher  branches  of  education,  and  the 
study  of  Ancient  Greek  is  continued  with  more 
critical  exactness.  I  was  now  in  a  country  where 
the  young  ladies 

—Read  in  Greek  the  wrath  of  Peleus'  son, 

pass  their  graver  hours  with  Plato,  and,  for  light 
reading,  turn  the  pages  of  Xenophon.  I  was 
shown  a  set  of  Greek  classics,  belonging  to  a 
young  lady  who  assisted  as  a  teacher  in  the 
school. 

At  this  school,  which  is  doing  a  vast  deal  of 
good,  and  which  is  constantly  pressed  with  ap 
plications  for  the  admission  of  pupils  which  it  is 
obliged  to  decline  or  postpone,  I  heard  the  same 
account  of  the  eager  thirst  of  the  Greeks  for 
knowledge.  "Offer  a  Greek  child,"  said  Dr. 
Hill,  "  a  toy  or  a  book,  and  he  invariably  chooses 
the  book.  He  prefers  the  book  to  anything  else 


RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER.  223 

you  could  give  him,  sweetmeats  or  coins,  no  matter 
what  the  value  of  the  coin  you  offer  may  be. 
The  Greeks,"  continued  Dr.  Hill,  "  are  suscepti 
ble,  in  a  high  degree,  of  the  influence  of  exam 
ple,  and  with  a  proper  system  of  education  I 
should  hope  everything  from  them.  The  danger 
is,  however,  that  in  unlearning  their  superstitions, 
as  they  are  doing,  they  may  lay  aside  with  them 
all  reverence  for  religion,  and  all  the  restraints 
which  religion  imposes.  I  fear  that  this  is  the 
case  with  those  who  are  educated  at  the  govern 
ment  schools,  and  that  these  have  made  the 
Greek  character  worse  instead  of  better,  so  far 
as  their  influence  extends." 

Notwithstanding  this  severe  judgment,  I  can 
not  think  that  those  whose  desire  of  knowledge 
makes  them  submit  to  privations  and  hardships 
in  order  to  acquire  it  are  in  a  very  bad  way. 
They  acknowledge  and  act  upon  a  higher  motive 
than  the  gratification  of  their  appetites.  They 
are  learners  in  the  school  of  self-denial,  which  is 
the  basis  of  all  virtue,  and  the  only  school  in 
which  an  elevated  character  is  ever  formed. 

While  at  Athens,  I  was  curious  to  inform  my- 
Belf  of  the  controversy  in  which  Dr.  Jonas  King, 


224  DR.   JONAS  KING. 

the  learned  orientalist,  has  been  engaged.  He 
is  a  schoolmaster  to  the  Greeks  in  another  way, 
and,  I  believe,  with  equal  success.  You  know  he 
resides  at  Athens  in  the  quality  of  a  missionary. 
He  preaches  in  Greek  to  a  congregation  of  about 
thirty  persons.  The  Greek  constitution  secures 
liberty  of  worship  and  speech  on  religioiis  sub 
jects,  to  persons  of  "  all  known  religions."  The 
law  at  the  same  time  directs  that  no  person  shall 
revile  the  religion  of  another,  and  provides  cer 
tain  penalties  against  those  who  transgress  this 
rule.  Dr.  King,  in  the  exercise  of  the  liberty 
guaranteed  by  the  constitution,  freely  discussed 
the  question  of  the  adoration  of  the  Yirgin.  His 
views  were  controverted,  and  he  supported  them 
by  a  pamphlet  expressing  no  opinion  of  his  own, 
but  giving  extracts,  in  the  original  Greek,  from 
the  fathers  of  the  Greek  church — Chrysostom, 
Basil,  and  others — in  which  they  spoke  of  the 
Virgin  as  not  a  proper  object  of  adoration. 
From  this  moment  the  controversy  became  a  per 
secution  on  the  part  of  his  adversaries.  He  was 
arraigned  on  a  charge  of  reviling  the  Greek 
Church.  He  employed  able  counsel,  who  under 
took  his  defence  on  the  ground  that  he  had  re- 


PEKSECUTION   OF   DR.    KING.  225 

viled  no  man's  religion,  but  had  merely  expressed 
his  own  opinion  on  a  religious  question,  with 
that  freedom  which  the  constitution  allows.  He 
was  taken  to  Syra,  in  order  to  be  tried,  but  t\e 
popular  fury  against  him  had  been  inflamed  to 
such  a  pitch  that  it  was  feared  that  if  he  were 
landed  he  might  be  torn  in  pieces,  and  he  was 
accordingly  brought  back  to  Athens.  A  princi 
pal  reason  of  the  popular  excitement  was  the 
excommunication  which  had  been  fulminated 
against  him  by  the  Greek  priesthood,  denouncing 
him  as  a  godless  blasphemer,  with  whom  all  the 
faithful  were  forbidden  to  hold  any  communica 
tion,  or  to  have  the  most  indifferent  transaction 
in  life. 

At  length  he  was  tried  at  Athens  by  the  Are 
opagus.  He  was  zealously  defended  by  his  coun 
sel,  but  the  court  declared  him  guilty  of  reviling 
the  Greek  Church,  and  sentenced  him  to  impris 
onment.  He  was  put  into  a  dungeon  with  com 
mon  malefactors — a  dungeon  so  crowded,  filthy, 
and  damp,  that,  if  arrangements  had  not  after 
ward  been  made,  allowing  him  to  pass  the  term 
of  his  confinement,  which  was  a  short  one,  in  the 
house  of  his  jailer,  his  friends  believe  that  he 


226  A  GREEK  MOB. 

could  not  Lave  lived  to  the  end  of  it.  A  sentence 
of  banishment  was  also  pronounced  against  him, 
to  which  he  has  paid  no  heed.  "  If  they  come  to 
carry  me  out  of  the  country,"  said  he,  "  I  shall 
not  resist,  but  until  that  is  done,  I  shall  re 
main." 

It  was  during  these  proceedings  that  one  Sun 
day  a  large  crowd  of  Greeks,  led  by  a  priest  of 
their  Church,  assembled  in  his  house  and  garden 
to  hear  one  of  his  discourses.  His  subject  was 
the  duty  of  religious  toleration.  At  the  close 
the  priest  asked  a  question  concerning  some 
things  advanced  in  the  discussion,  to  which  Dr. 
King  gave  a  prudent  answer.  The  priest  then 
demanded  an  explanation  of  certain  positions 
laid  down  in  another  discourse,  which  Dr.  King 
declined  giving  at  that  time,  observing  that  he 
would  agree  to  appoint  almost  any  other  day  for 
the  discussion.  The  multitude  immediately 
joined  the  priest  in  demanding  that  the  discus 
sion  should  go  on  at  that  moment,  with  such  fury 
and  noise  that  his  friends  thought  his  life  in  dan 
ger.  It  happened  at  the  time  that  the  American 
consul  was  absent  from  Athens,  and  the  functions 
of  the  office  were  delegated  to  Dr.  King.  An 


THE  AMERICAN  FLAG.  227 

American  flag,  a  day  or  two  previous,  had  been 
received  by  Dr.  King,  from  Washington.  In  the 
midst  of  the  tumult,  at  the  very  moment  when 
the  multitude  seemed  ready  to  tear  him  in  pieces, 
he  bethought  himself  of  the  flag,  and  hastily  un 
rolling  it,  let  it  stream  from  one  of  the  windows. 
As  soon  as  the  mob  saw  it,  their  clamors  were 
hushed,  they  began  to  disperse  in  the  utmost 
haste,  and  in  five  minutes  not  one  of  them  was 
left  in  the  house  or  the  garden. 

At  present  the  triumph  seems  to  be  on  the  side 
of  Dr.  King.  The  Greeks  are  in  a  fair  way  to 
learn  from  him  the  lesson  of  religious  toleration. 
He  is  under  an  ecclesiastical  curse,  as  nobody 
can  even  speak  to  him  without  incurring  the  cen 
sure  of  the  Church ;  yet  everybody  now  speaks 
to  him :  he  is  exiled  for  his  religious  opinions, 
yet  he  remains  at  Athens,  and  preaches  every 
Sunday  without  any  reserve  in  the  expression  of 
his  religious  views.  He  has  behaved  throughout 
the  whole  affair  with  the  greatest  intrepidity,  and, 
if  we  may  judge  from  appearances,  has  brought 
his  adversaries  -at  last  to  the  conclusion  that 
their  best  policy  is  to  let  him  alone.  I  admire  his 
courage,  and  rejoice  in  his  success. 


228  GREEK  POLITICS. 

On  the  steamer  which  took  me  from  Athens  to 
Calamaki,  I  had  a  conversation  with  one  of  those 
who  led  the  opposition  to  the  Greek  administra 
tion,  while  an  opposition  existed.  He  spoke 
without  any  reserve  on  the  subject  of  Greek  poli 
tics.  "The  sovereign,"  he  said,  "has  no  sympa 
thy  with  the  Greek  nation — has  no  interest  in 
its  welfare  ;  he  is  still  a  foreigner,  and  only  thinks 
of  his  equipages  and  his  amusements.  "While 
there  was  an  opposition  in  the  Greek  parliament 
to  the  administration,  the  complaint  was  that  it 
prevented  the  enactment  of  measures  for  the 
public  welfare  :  the  opposition  exists  no  longer ; 
and  yet  nothing  is  done.  Greece  should  have  a 
respectable  navy ;  her  natural  situation,  with  so 
many  islands,  peninsulas,  gulfs,  and  harbors, 
should  make  us  a  maritime  nation  ;  yet  we  have 
no  navy.  "We  have  but  one  vessel ;  we  send  out 
our  young  men  to  obtain  a  naval  education  in 
England,  and  when  they  return  we  have  no  em 
ployment  for  them.  The  Greek  race  throughout 
Thessaly,  Macedonia,  and  Epirus  are  eager  to 
break  the  chains  of  the  Ottoman  government,  and 
join  themselves  to  us ;  if  we  had  a  navy  to  show 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION,  229 

the  Greek  flag  in  their  harbors,  they  would  make 
the  attempt,  and  the  Porte  would  be  compelled 
to  submit.  Our  laws  are  unfavorable  to  com 
merce,  yet  commerce  flourishes  without  them — a 
sign  of  what  our  trade  and  our  commercial  navy 
would  be,  if  the  laws  were  friendly,  or  even  just 
to  them. 

"  You  see,"  he  continued,  pointing  to  a  portly, 
healthy-looking  gentleman  in  black,  "  you  see 
there  the  king's  confessor.  That  man  has  more 
to  do  with  public  affairs  than  all  the  Greek  peo 
ple.  It  is  he  who  makes  up  the  cabinet  and  be 
stows  offices.  Pay  your  court  to  him,  and  you 
may  have  what  place  in  the  government  you 
please.  It  is  by  the  conferring  of  offices  that  the 
parliament  is  managed.  As  soon  as  an  able  man 
appears,  he  is  bought  over  from  the  people  by 
being  made  a  minister,  or  appointed  to  some 
other  responsible  post,  in  which  he  must  give  up 
his  independence  of  opinion.  You  know  how 
public  men  are  corrupted.  In  Greece  we  are 
all  poor,  and  are  therefore  the  more  strongly 
tempted." 

Such  are  some  of  the  topics  of  Greek  politics 
20 


230  OPPOSITION  TO  THE   GOVERNMENT. 

in  the  mouths  of  the  opposition.  What  may  be 
said  on  the  other  side,  I  had  no  opportunity  to 
inform  myself.  I  find  myself  at  the  end  of  my 
sheet,  and,  as  I  have  little  more  to  say  on  the 
subject  of  this  letter,  I  will  close. 


MAY  AT   HOME.  231 


LETTER  XVIII. 


May  at  Rome.— Abundance  of  flowers.— Severity  of  the  Roman  govern 
ment.— The  people  kept  quiet  by  the  military.— Improved  appearance 
of  Rome.— The  city  beautified.— Copies  of  old  pictures.— American 
artists  at  Rome.— Sculptors.— Painters.— Gibson's  Venus.— Colored 
statues.— Powers  at  Florence.— The  monument  of  Titian  at  Venice. 


ROME,  May  17th,  1853. 

THIS  is  the  season  when,  in  Italy,  the  earth 
pours  forth  flowers  with  the  same  profusion  as 
she  offers  her  fruits  in  September.  The  gar 
dens  are  one  blush  of  roses,  and  the  stronger- 
growing  kinds  of  the  rose-tree,  both  white  and 
red,  hang  themselves  on  the  walls  with  a  surpris 
ing  luxuriance  of  growth  and  bloom.  The  for 
est-trees  yet  cast  a  thin  shade,  but  in  the  mead 
ows  the  grass  stands  as  high  as  it  does  with  us 
in  the  middle  of  June,  and  is  intermingled  with 
numberless  flowering  plants.  I  rode  out  the 
other  day  to  the  lake  of  Nemi ;  the  woody  banks 
on  each  side  of  the  road  from  Albano  were  col 
ored  with  flowers,  the  apple-trees  beside  the 
way  along  the  heights  which  surround  the  lake, 
showed  their  flower-buds  just  swelling  with  the 
spring,  but  in  the  deep  basin  below  they  were 


232  MILITAKY  COERCION. 

already  fully  open,  and  the  white  images  of  the 
trees  were  reflected  in  the  tranquil  water. 

I  wish  there  were  no  novelties  to  be  observed 
at  Eome  more  unpleasant  than  these.  Every 
morning,  at  an  early  hour,  the  people  of  the  city 
are  awakened  by  military  music,  and  the  tramp 
of  bodies  of  soldiery  is  heard  as  they  march 
through  the  street.  You  meet  them  defiling 
through  the  public  ways  at  other  hours  of  the 
day ;  you  see  them  performing  their  manoeuvres 
and  exercises  in  the  public  gardens ;  you  hear 
the  drum  as  often  as  the  sound  of  bells ;  soldiers 
are  more  numerous  in  public  than  even  priests. 
Every  pains  seems  to  be  taken  to  let  the  people 
know  that  they  live  under  a  military  government, 
which  can  afford  to  dispense  with  their  good 
will.  There  are  some  circumstances,  however, 
which  tend  to  show  that  the  government  rules  in 
as  much  fear  as  it  seeks  to  inspire.  Not  a  single 
copy  of  a  journal  from  France  or  England  is  de 
livered  from  the  post-office,  till  it  is  carefully  ex 
amined  to  see  whether  it  contains  any  political 
intelligence  which  the  government  chooses  to 
keep  from  the  knowledge  of  its  subjects,  or  any 
political  reflections  of  a  nature  which  it  disap- 


GROWTH  OF   THE   POPULATION.  233 

proves.  If  these  are  found  in  it,  the  journal  is 
withheld.  A  German,  employed  for  the  purpose, 
reads  the  English  journals,  and  whenever  he  re 
ports  in  favor  of  suppressing  them  they  are  de 
stroyed.  If  the  people  stand  in  awe  of  the  gov 
ernment,  it  is  evident  that  the  government  dreads 
the  people.  There  is  distrust  on  one  side,  and 
hatred  on  the  other — a  condition  of  things  which 
may  last  for  years,  but  which,  through  a  little 
imprudence  on  the  part  of  the  government,  or  a 
sudden  exasperation  on  the  part  of  the  people, 
may,  at  almost  any  time,  be  exchanged  for  a 
state  of  open  and  bloody  revolt. 

In  the  midst  of  the  evils  of  this  false  system 
of  political  organization,  there  are  some  tokens 
of  prosperity  to  be  seen  at  Borne.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  population  of  the  city  has  consid 
erably  increased  within  the  last  twenty  years. 
The  proof  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  rise  of 
rents,  and  the  difficulty  which  now  exists  in  find 
ing  commodious  apartments.  I  am  told  that 
rents  have  nearly  doubled,  and  that  the  spacious 
suites  of  rooms  which  a  few  }rears  since  stood  va 
cant  in  the  palaces  and  other  large  houses,  have 
now  their  inmates.  This  is  owing,  no  doubt,  in 
20* 


234  THE  CITY  BEAUTIFIED. 

part  to  the  general  growth  of  the  population  of 
Italy  during  the  late  long  interval  of  rest  from 
war,  and  in  part  to  the  new  facilities  for  travel 
ling,  which  bring  many  more  strangers  to  Home 
than  formerly,  as  visitors  or  residents.  The  tide, 
also,  which  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  is  setting 
back  toward  the  usages  and  opinions  of  the  mid 
dle  ages,  no  doubt  floats  many  hither,  and  adds 
something  to  this  new  growth  of  Rome.  Those 
who  foretold  that  the  Eternal  City,  in  the  un 
healthy  air  of  her  Campagna,  would  at  no  dis 
tant  day  become  unpeopled,  must  be  content  to 
look  to  a  very  remote  and  indefinite  futurity  for 
the  fulfilment  of  their  prediction. 

Meantime  the  city  is  somewhat  beautified  with 
almost  every  succeeding  year.  Statues  and  col 
umns  are  erected ;  the  old  irregular  pavement  of 
the  streets,  trodden  with  so  much  pain  by  those 
who  had  corns  on  their  feet,  has  been  taken  up, 
and  its  place  supplied  by  a  smoother  one,  com 
posed  of  small  rectangular  blocks  of  stone,  like 
those  used  in  paving  the  streets  of  Paris ;  a  noble 
causey,  with  parapets  and  a  pavement  of  hewn 
stone,  has  been  lately  made  over  the  low  grounds 
just  without  the  gate,  as  the  new  Appian  wa}T ; 


COPIES  OF  PICTURES.  235 

and  the  public  garden  on  the  Monte  Pincio  has 
been  embellished  with  rows  of  busts,  in  marble, 
of  the  illustrious  men  of  Italy,  her  sages,  artists, 
and  authors.  Workmen  are  now  occupied  in  the 
garden,  forming  its  walks,  and  planting  them 
with  trees,  among  which  I  perceive  the  evergreen 
magnolia,  the  bayonet-leaved  palmetto,  the  date- 
palm,  and  other  trees  of  the  palm  kind,  which 
do  not  find  the  climate  here  too  rude  for  their 
growth. 

There  is  an  occupation  at  Kome  which,  if  I 
may  judge  from  what  I  have  seen  and  learned 
since  I  came  here,  meets  with  a  very  liberal  en 
couragement  from  strangers — I  mean  the  copying 
of  old  pictures.  A  great  part  of  this,  performed 
by  native  artists  who  make  it  their  profession,  is 
the  merest  and  easiest  journey-work.  An  Amer 
ican,  the  other  day,  bought  a  whole  gallery  of 
these  copies,  so  ill-executed,  I  was  told,  that 
scarce  anybody  here  would  have  allowed  them 
to  remain  in  his  sight.  These  people  forget  that 
a  good  copy  of  a  great  picture  is  no  common 
thing,  and  that  it  requires  in  him  who  works  it, 
most  of  the  requisites  of  a  great  painter.  It  is 
frequently  said  that  a  good  copy  is  better  than  a 


236  AMERICAN  ARTISTS. 

bad  original,  which  is  true  enough ;  but  it  should 
be  remembered  that  good  originals  are  not  so 
very  much  more  rare  than  good  copies. 

You  may,  perhaps,  like  some  notices  of  what 
the  American  artists  are  doing  in  Borne.  Craw 
ford  is  occupied  with  his  equestrian  statue  of 
Washington,  designed  for  the  city  of  Bichmond. 
Around  the  principal  figure,  which  is  not  yet 
fully  modelled,  will  be  placed  statues  of  the  con 
temporary  great  men  of  Virginia.  Two  of  these, 
the  statues  of  Jefferson  and  Patrick  Henry,  are 
already  modelled,  and  plaster  casts  of  them  have 
been  obtained.  They  are  of  colossal  size,  and 
are  designed  with  a  manly  vigor  and  disdain  of 
minor  graces  which  quite  delights  me.  If  the  rest 
of  the  monument  shall  be  conceived  in  the  same 
spirit,  it  will  greatly  raise  Crawford's  reputation. 
He  has  a  small  work  under  the  chisel,  the  Babes 
in  the  Wood,  which  I  hear  has  been  ordered  by 
a  gentleman  of  New  York.  The  children  are 
lying  hand  in  hand,  and  the  redbreast  has  just 
began  his  pious  office  of  covering  them  with, 
leaves.  The  subject  seemed  to  me  beautifully 
treated. 

The  other  American  sculptors  at  Borne — Mo- 


SCULPTORS   AND   PAINTERS.  237 

zier,  Richard  S.  Greenough,  Rogers,  and  Ives, 
are  all  zealously  pursuing  their  art,  and  occupied 
with  works  which  show  that  there  is  not  one  of 
them  who  is  not  likely  to  surpass  what  he  has 
already  done.  Mozier  has  a  statue  of  Silence, 
which  does  him  much  credit ;  it  is  a  female  fig 
ure,  standing  in  an  attitude  of  command,  with  a 
calm  severity  of  aspect,  the  forefinger  of  the  left 
hand  pointing  to  the  lips.  Greenough  is  model 
ling  the  figure  of  a  shepherd,  attacked  by  an 
eagle,  which  promises  well. 

Page  is  here,  analyzing  the  manner  in  which 
Titian  produced  his  peculiar  coloring,  and  repro 
ducing  some  of  his  heads  in  excellent  copies. 
But  he  has  done  what  is  better  than  this  ;  he  has 
painted  a  portrait  of  Charlotte  Cushman,  a  fine, 
solid  painting,  richly  colored,  with  which  not  only 
his  friends,  but  everybody  who  sees  it,  is  charmed. 
Terry,  a  universal  favorite  with  his  countrymen, 
is  occupied  with  a  picture  of  "  Samuel  and  his 
Mother."  G.  C.  Thompson,  who  arrived  here  not 
long  since,  is  looking  at  the  works  of  the  great 
Italian  painters,  and  now  and  then  making  a 
clever  copy  of  a  head  or  a  single  figure.  Nichols 
has  very  successfully  transferred  the  calm  glow 


GIBSON  S  WORKS. 


of  Claude's  landscapes  into  some  fine  copies 
which  he  is  making.  "Wotherspoon  is  luxuriating 
on  the  sylvan  beauties  of  Nenri.  For  my  part,  I 
can  hardly  understand  what  an  American  land 
scape-painter,  after  satisfying  a  natural  curiosity 
to  see  the  works  of  the  great  masters  of  his  art, 
should  do  in  Italy.  He  can  study  nature  to 
quite  as  much  advantage  at  home — a  fresh  and 
new  nature,  as  beautiful  as  that  of  Italy,  though 
with  a  somewhat  different  aspect  of  beauty. 

I  was  the  other  day  in  the  studio  of  Gibson, 
the  English  sculptor.  He  showed  our  party  a 
work  in  basso-relievo,  representing  Phaeton  at 
tempting  to  guide  the  chariot  of  the  sun.  It 
equals  in  fire  and  spirit  anything  the  imagination 
could  conceive  of  such  a  subject.  The  horses, 
with  distended  nostrils,  plunge  madly  forward 
through  space,  seeming  as  if  they  would  leap  out 
of  their  harness,  and  the  young  charioteer  holds 
the  reins  with  an  aspect  of  uncertainty  and  alarm. 
In  another  part  of  Gibson's  studio  was  placed  a 
statue,  on  which  he  had  been  trying  an  experi 
ment  that  had  long  occupied  his  thoughts.  The 
ancients,  you  know,  colored  or  painted  their  stat 
ues,  and  this  is  supposed  to  have  been  done  by 


A  TINTED  VENUS.  2C9 

persons  who  made  it  their  particular  profession. 
Gibson  has  a  statue  of  Yenus,  a  very  pleasing 
figure,  the  hair  of  which  he  has  colored  of  a 
very  light  warm  brown,  binding  it  with  a  fillet  of 
the  most  delicate  blue,  stained  the  eye  with  a 
dim  azure,  with  a  tint  of  a  crimson  vein  or  two 
at  the  corners,  laid  the  faintest  possible  bloom 
on  the  cheeks,  touched  the  lips  slightly  with  scar 
let,  and  suffused  the  skin,  over  the  whole  form, 
with  a  carnation  just  perceptible,  through  which 
the  blue  stains  of  the  marble  appear  like  wander 
ing  veins.  The  drapery  of  the  figure  is  left  in 
the  original  color  of  the  marble,  except  the  bor 
der,  along  which  runs  a  double  stripe  of  pale 
blue,  with  another  of  pale  crimson  next  to  the 
edge.  The  effect  is  agreeable  far  beyond  what  I 
should  have  expected.  The  marble  is  deprived 
of  all  its  appearance  of  hardness,  and  the  statue 
has  the  look  of  a  human  figure  seen  through  a 
soft  mist ;  the  outlines  seem  to  blend  with  the 
atmosphere. 

On  my  way  hither,  stopping  at  Florence,  I 
visited  the  studio  of  our  countryman,  Powers. 
He  had  several  busts  lately  executed  with  his 
usual  skill  in  giving  the  expression  of  character 


240  WORKS  OF  POWERS. 

and  life,  and  was  then  occupied  with  a  figure  in 
tended  as  a  representative  of  our  new  state,  Cal 
ifornia.  In  her  left  hand  she  holds  a  divining- 
rod  pointing  downward  to  the  mines  in  her  soil, 
and  in  her  right  she  conceals  behind  her  back  a 
scourge,  intended  as  an  emblem  of  the  calamities 
which  follow  the  eager  search  for  gold.  Powers 
at  present  models  his  figures  in  a  peculiar  man 
ner.  He  builds  them  up  with  fragments  of  dry 
plaster,  cemented  by  the  same  material  in  a 
liquid  state.  When  any  part  of  the  figure  re 
quires  to  be  made  rounder  or  fuller,  he  lays  on 
the  plaster  with  a  flexible  gutta  percha  trowel ; 
when  it  is  to  be  reduced  in  size,  he  applies  a 
kind  of  file  or  rasp,  of  which  he  is  the  inventor, 
which  never  becomes  clogged,  and  is  pierced 
with  holes,  through  which  the  plaster  shoots  in  a 
shower.  In  this  manner  he  completes  the  model 
in  a  shorter  time  than  it  could  be  moulded  in 
clay,  and  avoids  the  trouble  of  taking  a  cast. 

While  I  am  speaking  of  works  of  sculpture,  let 
me  mention  the  monument  of  Titian,  at  Venice,  in 
the  church  of  Santa  Maria  dei  Frari,  erected  last 
year, — more  than  three  hundred  years  after  his 
death.  It  stands  among  the  monuments  of  the 


ALLEGORICAL   FIGURES.  241 

statesmen  and  warriors,  the  admirals  and  doges 
of  Yenice,  as  lofty  and  as  splendid  as  any  of 
them,  and  in  a  taste  less  barbaric.  Near  the 
base  sit  two  colossal  figures — on  the  left  a  bald 
old  man,  with  eyes  closed,  representing  Time 
Past,  holding  a  tablet,  on  which  are  inscribed 
the  words  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  uttered  in 
1506,  commanding  that  Titian  be  made  a  knight 
and  count  of  the  empire  ;  on  the  right  a  man  in 
the  vigor  of  life,  representing  Time  Present,  with 
a  tablet,  on  which  is  engraved  the  command  of 
Ferdinand  of  Austria,  in  1853,  directing  a  monu 
ment  to  be  erected  to  Titian's  memory.  Titian 
sits  on  the  summit  of  the  pedestal,  unveiling 
with  his  right  hand  the  statue  of  Isis,  or  Nature, 
and  laying  his  left  on  a  volume  brought  him  by 
a  winged  youth, — intimating  that  he  derives  the 
inspiration  of  his  aid  from  the  two  sources  of 
nature  and  religion.  On  each  side  of  him  stand 
two  allegorical  figures,  one  of  which,  the  Muse 
of  Painting,  looking  forward  with  lifted  eyes  as 
if  into  the  distant  future,  brings  him  the  wreath 
of  immortal  fame.  On  the  wall  of  the  monu 
ment,  and  under  the  arch  over  the  head  of 
Titian,  is  beautifully  sculptured,  in  basso-relievo 
21 


243  TITIAN'S  ASSUMPTION. 

his  noblest  work,  the  Assumption  of  the  Yirgin ; 
and  four  other  paintings  of  his  are  copied  in  the 
same  manner,  on  a  smaller  scale,  in  different 
compartments.  On  the  top  of  the  arch,  forty 
feet  from  the  floor,  stands  the  winged  Lion  of 
St.  Mark,  the  emblem  of  that  Yenice  for  whose 
churches  and  halls  his  finest  paintings  were  pro 
duced.  This  monument  is  the  work  of  Luigi 
and  Pietro  Zandomeneghi,  and  strikes  me  as  one 
of  the  finest  things  of  its  kind  in  Yenice. 


FKESNEL   LIGHTS.  243 


LETTEE  XIX. 

Fresnel  lights.— Their  strength  and  brilliancy.— Improvement  in  their 
contraction.— Tomb  of  Napoleon.— Its  magnificence.— Imperfect 
civilization  of  mankind. — Exhibition  of  the  works  of  living  artists. — 
Naked  Venuses. — Ugly  head  of  Louis  Napoleon. — Duveau. — Death  of 
Agrippina. 

PAKIS,  June  1st,  1853. 

I  HAVE  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  one  of  the 
government  offices,  in  which  the  Fresnel  lights,  , 
designed  for  the  light-houses  on  the  French 
coast,  are  deposited.  The  invention  of  Fresnel 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  examples  we  have  of 
that  skill  by  which  the  apparently  barren  phe 
nomena  of  science  are  forced  into  the  service  of 
man. 

Light,  you  know,  radiates  in  all  directions. 
Place  a  lamp  in  a  tower  on  a  sea-coast,  and  part 
of  its  rays  are  wasted  on  the  clouds  above  it, 
part  on  the  earth  below,  and  part  stream  to  the 
right  and  left,  where  they  are  not  wanted.  By  a 
most  ingenious  arrangement  of  prisms,  Fresnel 
Qollected  these  useless  rays  and  sent  them  for 
ward  in  a  horizontal  direction,  parallel  with  the 
surface  of  the  ocean,  where  they  must  meet  the 


244  AN  INGENIOUS  DEVICE. 

eye  of  the  mariner.  An  intense  light,  by  this 
concentration  of  its  beams,  is  obtained  from  a 
single  lamp.  I  desired  to  see  an  example  of  the 
effect  produced,  and  a  lamp  was  placed  within 
one  of  Fresnel's  circles  of  prisms,  while  I  stood 
at  the  distance  of  twenty  feet  or  more.  It  blazed 
into  my  eyes  like  the  rising  sun,  and  I  could  not 
bear  to  look  at  it. 

Lieutenant  Bartlett,  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
is  now  in  Paris,  superintending  the  purchase  of 
two  or  three  of  these  lights,  for  which  appropri 
ations  have  fortunately  been  obtained  from  Con 
gress.  One  of  them  is  shortly  to  be  sent  out  to 
America,  and  will,  it  is  expected,  be  exhibited  for 
a  time  at  the  Crystal  Palace.  I  hope  it  will  be 
so  placed  that  everybody  may  see  it  without  cost ; 
for  I  regard  it  as  a  matter  of  great  importance 
that  the  perfect  manner  in  which  the  invention 
fulfils  its  purpose  should  be  generally  known  and 
acknowledged.  The  want  of  good  lights  on  our 
coast  is  a  scandal  to  our  country.  France,  with 
a  much  smaller  marine  commerce  than  ours,  has 
erected  Fresnel  lights  at  every  part  of  her  bor 
ders  on  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mediterranean  where 
the  seaman  needs  the  least  notice  of  danger. 


OUR  BADLY-LIGHTED   COAST.  245 

These  strong  rays,  piercing  the  fogs  and  storms, 
give  the  necessary  warning  in  any  state  of  the 
weather.  England,  with  a  commerce  but  little 
larger  than  our  own,  has  also  adopted  the  Fres- 
nel  lights.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  content  our 
selves  with  putting  up  a  few  lamps,  which  glim 
mer  feebly  when  the  air  is  clear,  and  are  of  no 
use  in  thick  and  foggy  weather — that  is  to  say, 
when  their  light  is  wanted.  We  might  nearly  as 
well  let  our  light-houses  fall  to  ruin,  and  imitate 
the  example  of  Turkey,  which  leaves  its  whole 
coast  in  entire  darkness. 

One  or  two  of  the  Fresnel  lights  have  already 
been  set  up  in  America,  but  they  are  of  the  origi 
nal  early  pattern — before  Fresnel  and  his  brother 
had  perfected  the  invention.  I  saw  one  of  these 
at  the  repository  of  which  I  am  speaking,  and 
the  difference  between  it  and  those  which  are  at 
present  used  in  France,  is  very  great.  In  that 
model,  Fresnel  employed  only  prisms  with 
straight  sides ;  he  had  no  apparatus  for  making 
any  other ;  they  were  put  together  in  small 
pieces ;  the  light  was  obstructed  by  the  cement 
used  to  confine  them  in  their  places,  and  the 
stray  beams  of  light  which  escaped  through  the 
21* 


246  FRESNEL'S  WORKSHOP. 

space  between  the  prisms,  were  caught  upon  mir 
rors  and  reflected  in  the  desired  direction.  But 
in  the  new  Fresnel  lights,  the  mirrors  are  laid 
aside  as  no  longer  necessary;  the  prisms  have 
taken  a  curved  shape ;  they  are  larger  and  less 
numerous,  and  the  sphere  of  glass  which  they 
form,  enclosing  the  lamp,  is  of  a  far  simpler  and 
more  solid  construction,  and  a  more  perfect  trans 
parency. 

I  was  taken  afterward  to  the  workshop  where 
these  prisms  are  made,  and  whence  the  western 
coast  of  Europe  is  supplied  with  the  apparatus 
for  its  light-houses.  Here  large  wheel-shaped 
masses  of  glass,  fixed  upon  tables  revolving  hori 
zontally,  were  ground  with  sand  to  the  proper 
angle,  and  finally  polished.  In  another  part  of 
the  building  artisans  were  at  work,  framing  the 
turrets  of  metal  and  glass  in  which  the  apparatus 
of  Fresnel  is  enclosed.  These  are  roofed  with 
copper,  and  the  iron  ribs  in  which  the  glass  is 
set  are  covered  on  the  outside  with  thin  copper 
bars,  so  that  no  part  of  the  iron  is  in  danger 
of  corrosion  by  being  exposed  to  the  external 
air. 

The  great  advantage  of  Fresnel's  apparatus 


ADVANTAGES  OF  FRESNEL  LIGHTS.  247 

lies  in  the  strength  of  the  light  which  it  throws 
in  the  direction  where  it  is  wanted,  but  it  has 
two  other  important  recommendations — its  econ 
omy,  and  the  ease  with  which  it  is  kept  in  order. 
With  a  single  lamp  it  does  what  in  the  old 
method  required  thirty,  and  it  dispenses  alto 
gether  with  the  clumsy  contrivance  of  reflectors, 
which  are  constantly  becoming  tarnished  and 
wearing  out.  The  supply  of  oil  which  is  needed 
is,  of  course,  comparatively  trifling.  I  hope,  for 
my  part,  that  no  time  will  be  lost  in  lighting  the 
whole  coast  of  the  United  States,  through  all  its 
degrees  of  latitude,  both  on  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific,  with  the  apparatus  of  Fresnel.  The 
outlay  at  first  would  be  considerable,  but  it  would 
be  soon  made  up  to  the  treasury  in  the  dimin 
ished  expense  of  maintaining  the  lights.  A  lib 
eral  appropriation  for  the  purpose  made  at  once, 
would  be  an  act  of  the  highest  frugality  for  the 
public  treasury,  to  say  nothing  of  the  lives  it 
might  preserve,  and  the  cargoes  it  might  save 
from  wreck. 

I  have  been  told  that  Captain  Forbes,  of  Bos 
ton,  not  long  since  took  out  with  him  to  America 
two  ship-lanterns  constructed  on  Fresnel's  plan. 


248  NAPOLEON'S  TOMB. 

They  were  found  to  answer  their  purpose  admi 
rably,  as  I  hear,  but  the  Yankees,  with  their 
usual  dexterity  in  applying  such  resources  as 
they  have  at  hand,  immediately  hit  upon  a  sub 
stitute  for  Fresnel's  prisms  of  cut-glass,  which  is 
a  great  deal  cheaper  and  succeeds  almost  equally 
well.  They  form  the  glass  into  prisms,  with  the 
necessary  curve,  by  pressure,  and  in  this  way 
construct  a  lantern  but  very  little  inferior  in  the 
strength  of  its  light  to  those  made  in  the  French 
way. 

The  other  day  I  went  to  the  church  of  the  In- 
valides,  to  see  the  tomb  of  Napoleon,  which  has 
been  several  years  erecting,  at  an  immense  cost, 
and  is  just  completed.  There  is  not  on  earth  so 
magnificent  a  mausoleum  as  that  which  is  des 
tined  for  the  remains  of  the  former  Emperor  of 
France.  On  entering  the  church  I  found  myself 
in  the  midst  of  a  throng  hastening  in  the  same 
direction,  and  saw  before  me,  at  the  opposite  end 
of  the  building,  a  large  altar,  blazing  with  gold, 
under  a  gilded  canopy,  which  rested  on  twisted 
pillars  of  black  and  white  marble.  In  front  of  it, 
immediately  under  the  windows  of  the  dome, 
appeared  a  circular  balustrade  of  white  marble, 


THE   SARCOPHAGUS.  249 

around  which  the  people  were  pressing.  I  joined 
them,  and  saw  that  it  enclosed  a  broad,  open 
space,  sunk,  perhaps,  fifteen  feet  below  the 
church.  There,  on  a  pedestal  of  blue  granite, 
stood  an  enormous  open  sarcophagus  of  polished 
porphyry,  the  lid  of  which  lay  near  it,  on  a  ma 
chine,  ready  to  be  slid  over  it  as  soon  as  the  cer 
emony  of  sepulture  shall  be  performed.  On  the 
pavement  below,  around  the  pedestal,  was  a 
wreath  of  laurel  leaves  and  berries,  wrought  of 
various-colored  marbles — among  which  a  vivid 
green  marble,  from  the  quarries  of  the  United 
States,  was  conspicuous.  Surrounding  the  sar 
cophagus,  and  standing  against  the  pillars  which 
support  the  floor,  was  a  circle  of  colossal  figures 
in  marble,  the  meaning  of  which  I  did  not  at 
tempt  to  study.  One  of  them,  a  winged  figure, 
with  a  trumpet  by  his  side,  was  perhaps  the 
angel  of  the  resurrection,  who  is  to  summon  the 
great  warrior  from  his  grave  on  the  day  of  ac 
count,  when  he  will  be  unpleasantly  confronted 
by  the  multitudes  who  were  slain  in  his  wars. 
In  the  recesses  behind  these  statues  were  sculp 
tures  in  bas-relief,  representing  some  of  the  most 
important  events  of  Bonaparte's  history. 


250  NAPOLEON'S  TITLE  TO  HOMAGE. 

In  that  sarcophagus  is  soon  to  be  placed  the 
handful  of  dust  which  is  all  that  remains  of  one 
who,  for  a  few  years,  was  the  terror  of  the  world. 
In  its  material,  its  form,  and  its  glittering  polish, 
this  massive  receptacle  reminded  me  of  the  huge 
chests  of  porphyry  found  in  the  newly-opened 
tomb  of  Apis,  at  Sakkara,  enclosing  the  bones  of 
the  sacred  ox  of  Egypt.  It  is  thus  that,  in  dif 
ferent  ages  of  the  world,  the  same  posthumous 
honors  are  paid  to  a  quadruped  and  a  conqueror, 
by  two  nations,  each  claiming  in  its  day  the  palm 
of  civilization.  The  Egyptians  were  the  nearer 
right  of  the  two ;  they  honored  the  representa 
tive  of  a  most  useful  tribe  of  animals  ;  the  French 
pay  their  homage  to  one  whose  title  to  it  is,  that 
"  with  infinite  manslaughter"  he  won  an  empire 
which  he  was  not  able  to  keep. 

I  regretted  that  I  could  not  look  at  the  sculp 
tures  in  relief  below,  except  at  a  distance  :  they 
will  be  accessible,  it  is  said,  as  soon  as  the  re 
mains  of  Bonaparte  are  inurned.  I  inquired  of 
a  friend  residing  in  Paris,  when  this  would  be 
done.  "There  is  a  controversy,"  he  replied, 
"about  this  matter  among  the  Bonapartists. 
One  party  insists  that  the  heart  of  Napoleon 


THE  DOORWAY  OF  THE  TOMB.  251 

shall  be  deposited  by  itself  in  the  cliurcli  of  St. 
Denys,  among  the  monuments  of  the  former 
sovereigns  of  France  ;  but  Jerome  swears  that  he 
will  not  allow  his  brother's  body  to  be  cut  up  in 
that  manner.  The  ceremony  of  removing  his  re 
mains  to  the  sarcophagus  has,  therefore,  been 
postponed  for  a  year." 

But  we  had  not  yet  seen  the  whole  of  the  mon 
ument.  Passing  beside  the  glittering  altar,  we 
descended  a  flight  of  steps  to  the  level  of  the 
great  Court  of  the  Invalides.  Here,  immediately 
back  of  the  altar,  and  under  it,  I  saw  the  en 
trance  to  the  tomb,  a  massive  doorway,  over 
which  are  engraved  the  words  of  Napoleon  ex 
pressing  his  desire  to  be  buried  among  the 
French  people  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine.  On 
each  side  of  this  passage  to  the  sarcophagus 
stands  a  colossal  figure,  in  bronze ;  one  of  them 
bearing,  on  a  cushion,  a  globe  and  sceptre,  the 
symbols  of  dominion,  and  the  other  a  sword  and 
gauntlet,  emblematic  of  the  violence  by  which 
that  dominion  was  gained,  and,  for  a  brief  space, 
upheld.  As  we  were  considering  these  figures, 
the  voices  of  priests  and  a  choir,  chanting  at  the 
altar  above,  resounded  up  the  lofty  dome  ;  it  was 


252  IMPERFECT   CIVILIZATION. 

a  litany,  nominally  addressed  to  the  God  of 
Peace.  I  looked  about  me,  and  saw  only  tlie 
symbols  of  warlike  glory,  and  encouragement  to 
the  pursuit  of  renown  in  arms.  On  the  walls 
were  the  sumptuous  monuments  of  men  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  as  the  instruments  of 
warlike  ambition  and  conquest — Vauban,  Mar 
shal  Bertrand,  and  others.  This  church  itself 
had  been  converted  into  the  mausoleum  of  a  con 
queror  ;  it  was  the  shrine  of  Napoleon ;  this  altar 
formed  a  part  of  his  monument,  and  this  hymn, 
whatever  its  words,  was  chanted  in  his  honor.  I 
had  before  me  one  of  the  forms  in  which  the 
Power  of  Destruction  is  still  worshipped.  What 
a  groundless  fancy,  to  suppose  that  the  adoration 
of  a  Great  Spirit  of  Evil  has  become  extinct  with 
the  race  of  ancient  Persians,  or  exists  only 
among  a  few  savage  tribes !  I  left  the  place  with 
the  throng,  passing  out  to  the  street  through  the 
Hospital  of  the  Invalides — for  we  were  not  per 
mitted  to  retrace  our  steps  to  the  principal  en 
trance.  I  left  it  with  a  strong  impression  of  the 
yet  imperfect  civilization  of  mankind. 

An  exhibition  of  the  works  of  living  artists  is 
now  open  in  this  city.     It  contains  more   than 


EXHIBITION   OF  WORKS   OF   ART.  253 

twelve  hundred  paintings,  three  hundred  and 
twenty  works  of  sculpture,  and  two  hundred 
and  sixty  engravings  and  architectural  designs. 
These  are  not  half  the  number  of  works  offered 
by  the  artists ;  about  twenty-five  hundred  were 
rejected  by  the  committee  employed  to  make  the 
selection,  and  among  these  were  some  which  at 
least  deserved  a  place  among  the  best  which 
were  accepted.  There  was  no  artist  on  the  com 
mittee  ;  those  who  were  named  as  members 
declined  to  serve,  and  the  politicians  and  public 
men  who  finally  composed  it  were  probably  not 
the  best  judges  in  such  matters. 

I  hope  so  at  least,  for  the  collection  is  far  from 
being  as  good  as  I  expected  to  find  it,  and  I 
should  be  glad  to  believe  that  it  would  have  been 
better  if  the  task  of  selection  had  been  intrusted 
to  a  better  committee.  In  the  department  of 
sculpture,  the  want  of  a  high  standard  of  art  is 
perhaps  most  observable.  There  are  plenty  of 
naked  Venuses  and  nymphs,  simpering,  leering, 
and  sprawling ;  and  these  are  oddly  enough  con 
trasted  with  several  figures  of  female  saints, 
wearing  an  air  of  theatrical  and  resolute  pru 
dery.  An  Egyptian  maiden  stooping  with  a  look 
22 


254  SMIKKING  BUSTS. 

of  compassion  and  tenderness  to  take  the  infant 
Moses  from  his  ark  of  rushes,  is  one  of  the  few 
female  statues  not  strictly  ecclesiastical  which  is 
not  vulgar.  Of  the  busts  there  are  some  good 
ones,  but  many  of  them  have  a  sort  of  smirk  or 
an  affected  attitude.  There  are  several  attempts 
to  make  something  of  the  head  of  Louis  Napo 
leon  in  sculpture,  but  the  subject  seems  an  in 
tractable  one,  and  none  of  them  are  successful. 

There  are  many  historical  pictures — some  of 
them  very  large,  and  scarce  any  of  the  large  ones 
tolerable.  The  largest  is  by  Matout,  represent 
ing  Ambrose  Pare  applying,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  annals  of  surgery,  the  ligature  to  the  arteries 
of  a  lamb,  after  an  amputation — an  immense 
failure.  The  subject  is  coldly  and  confusedly 
treated.  The  best  of  this  class  is  the  Death  of 
the  Virgin,  by  Lazerges,  a  subject  which  the 
painter  has  managed  with  dignity  and  feeling, 
though  the  dignity,  I  must  say,  rather  predomi 
nates.  The  death-struggle  is  just  past,  the 
household  stand  in  sorrow  around  the  couch  of 
the  dead,  whose  countenance  wears  the  tokens  of 
a  happy  departure,  and  a  little  child  is  advan 
cing,  encouraged  by  its  mother,  to  lay  a  handful 


FRENCH  LANDSCAPES.  255 

of  roses  by  the  Virgin's  calm  cheek.  You  may 
judge  of  the  strange  sort  of  things  to  be  seen  in 
this  gallery,  by  what  I  shall  tell  you  of  the  Death 
of  Agrippina,  by  Duveau.  A  large,  elderly  wo 
man,  of  a  livid  complexion,  is  sitting  up  naked 
in  her  bed,  and  throwing  her  arms  abroad  in  the 
air,  facing  three  half-clad  ruffians,  with  com 
plexions  of  reddish  brown,  who  rush  at  her  with 
clubs  and  daggers,  while  a  scowling  maid-serv 
ant,  behind  her  mistress,  is  huddling  on  her  gar 
ments,  which  seem  to  refuse  to  cover  her.  I 
must  not  omit  to  mention  a  picture  by  Winter- 
halter,  representing  Florinda  and  her  Maidens 
beginning  to  disrobe  her  for  the  bath,  which  is 
very  beautiful.  Of  the  landscapes,  there  are 
none  very  remarkable ;  the  best  are  those  which 
are  apparently  studied  from  nature ;  the  larger 
and  more  elaborate  ones  seemed  to  be  painted 
in  forgetfulness  of  nature.  There  are  portraits 
in  the  collection,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent ;  the 
indifferent  forming  the  largest  number. 

After  all,  I  am  making  a  criticism  which  must 
be  the  universal  one  in  regard  to  all  miscellane 
ous  collections  of  the  kind.  The  greater  number 
of  the  works  produced  by  artists  in  all  ages  are 


256 


FEW  GREAT  WORKS  OF  ART. 


unsuccessful,  or  but  partially  successful,  endeav 
ors  after  excellence.  The  works  which  survive 
to  be  the  admiration  of  succeeding  times  are 
few  in  any  single  year,  and  in  the  most  prolific 
years  form  an  exception  to  the  mass  of  works 
produced. 


" 


